LIBRARY 

OF  THK 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 


C/ass 


__ 

' 


T 


POEMS 

OF 

PERSONALITY 

REGINALD  C.  ROBBINS 


—  "  to  speak  beyond  the  book  " 


CAMBRIDGE 

mteD  at  tlje  IStbersioe 

1904 


COPYRIGHT   1904  BY  REGINALD  CHAUNCEY   ROBBINS 
ALL  RIGHTS   RESERVED 


CONTENTS 

PHARAOH 3 

MOSES 6 

GAUTAMA 12 

CHRIST 22 

PILATE 32 

JUDAS 37 

MARY 4° 

MOHAMMED 45 

DANTE 50 

COLUMBUS 59 

SAVONAROLA 65 

MICHELANGELO 74 

MILTON 82 

LEIBNIZ 89 

KEATS 97 

SHELLEY ioo 

iii 


i 


CONTENTS 

HEGEL .     .     .  108 

EMERSON 121 

WORDSWORTH 13° 

THOREAU 134 

BROWNING H2 

MATTHEW  ARNOLD 154 

GORDON i59 

MOHAMMED  AHMED 162 

TENNYSON 168 

WYCKOFF i75 

NANSEN •  l88 

DREYFUS 201 

TESLA  211 


iv 


POEMS  OF  PERSONALITY 


{    UNIVERSITY  J 

PHARAOH 

YEA,  now  at  last  to  let  this  people  go  ! 
Out  from  our  cities  and  our  fertile  lands 
To  drive  them  to  the  deserts  and  their  death  ! 
Truly  a  terrible  revenge,  to  thrust 
Them  forth  to  sure  starvation  at  their  prayer ! 
Yea,  for  I  loved  them  as  a  Pharaoh  may, 
This  people  prating  of  their  Most  High  God, 
And  pitied  them  and  fain  had  cherish 'd  them 
To  build  me  temples,  rear  me  granaries 
Even  as  in  days  of  Ramses ;  him,  the  Great. 
Then  came  their  sorceries  of  flies  and  frogs 
To  torment  Egypt.    And  I  still  forbore 
And  bound  them  to  me  as  a  Pharaoh  may 
Firm  for  protection  from  the  false  purport 
Of  Moses  and  of  Aaron  whom  I  loved  not. 
Fain  had  I  saved  them,  ay,  and  still  forbore 
For  love  I  bore  them  :  being  myself  their  God, 
Descendant  of  the  Sun,  Lord  over  all  ! 

Ha  !  do  they  dream,  if  that  my  father,  Ra, 
Favors  my  favor'd  in  this  fertile  land, 
He  will  be  other  than  a  blistering  flame 
3 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

To  scourge  them  through  the  bitter  wilderness  ? 
Nay,  shall  He  not  bewilder  those  He  blinds  not 
With  fever-fancies  of  some  towering  cloud 
By  day,  some  phantom  of  His  flame  by  night 
To  lure  them  madly  further  to  their  doom 
Ever  beneath  His  mightiness  the  more 
With  each  day's  wandering  southward,  till  the  crags 
Of  Sinai  mock  with  laughter  the  last  wail 
Of  them  who  perish  miserably,  seeking 
A  northern  country  and  a  shepherd  clime  ? 
A  terrible  revenge  which  I,  the  son 
Of  Ra  the  mighty,  wreak  on  Israel  now ! 
I  had  forborne  ;  but  when  my  first-born  fell, 
My  favorite  child,  to  their  foul  sorceries 
Then  did  the  wrath  of  Pharaoh  sneer  at  last : 
Unto  their  God  now  let  this  people  go  !  '  — 
And  they  are  gone.   As  journeying  birds  at  morning 
Settle  upon  the  temples  and  through  noon 
Bless  all  the  priestly  place  with  beauty,  but 
By  evening  are  flown  wholly  away ; 
And  Amen's  princely  home  glooms  desolate : 
So  are  this  folk  from  Goshen  gone  away  — 
Themselves  unto  their  doom  :  as  birds  in  some 
Fierce  tempest  of  the  northern  ocean  fall 
4 


PHARAOH 

Broken  and  beaten  back  throughout  our  coasts. — 

Shall  I  permit  that  those  my  love  hath  rear'd 

And  nurtured  to  be  builders  unto  Ra 

Shall  to  the  sorceries  of  one  or  two 

Fall  sacrifice  ?    Or  shall  I  save  them  still  ? 

Shall  the  east  sea  rebuff  the  last  of  them 

Struggling  toward  Egypt ;  that  they  die  along 

His  shores  in  hundreds,  calling  on  my  name  ? 

Or  shall  the  God  in  me  regard  them  still 

My  children,  though  my  first-born  be  no  more  ? 

As  they  are  men,  are  they  not  men  like  me  ? 
As  I  am  God,  are  they  perchance  not  gods 
%  My  children,  godlike  as  mine  own  first-born  ? 
Was  my  wrath  man-like,  god-like  ?    Was  my  grief 
Worthy  of  Pharaoh  that  I  sought  to  slay 
My  people  by  ten-thousands  ?    I  will  still 
Be  Pharaoh,  child  of  Ra,  lord  over  all 
My  people,  equally  with  them  divine !  — 

"  Call  me  my  captains  !    Hale  my  chariots  forth 
"  And  bowmen  !    I  will  bring  this  people  back  !  " 


MOSES 

THIS  people  !    Is  it  thus  I  led  them  forth 
From  bondage  to  be  free  ?    Yea,  is  it  thus  ? 
Doth  Egypt,  Egypt  bind  us,  though  these  sands 
Of  God's  great  desert  be  our  lodging-place 
And  fetters  and  their  flesh-pots  are  no  more  ? 
Yea,  is  it  thus  ?    That  freedom  needs  a  law ; 
And  I,  alone  from  out  that  multitude 
Of  idol-worshipers  who  once  were  slaves 
Yet  servants  also  of  the  Most  High  God, 
That  I  alone  must  meet  God  face  to  face 
In  His  high  mountain  to  be  messenger 
Of  uttermost  authority  :  and  now 
Stand,  fresh  from  God's  strength,  stricken  of  despair 
Here  statue-still  upon  this  stark  hillside  ? 
Lo  !  and  the  tablets  of  the  absolute  Law 
Destroy'd,  dropt  shatter'd  from  mine  hand ;  and  all 
This  speechless  blue  and  death-strewn  silent  crag 
Echoing  to  the  fragments,  bit  by  bit, 
That  burst  and,  bursting,  hurl  down  unto  dust ! 
Now  shall  I  front  this  people  and  be  dumb  ? 
I  :  who  went  forth  at  the  command  of  God 
To  learn  God's  purpose  and  proclaim  it  to  them  ? 
6 


MOSES 

Yea,  shall  I  front  them  ?    Or,  once  more,  face  God's 
Eternal  patience  ?  .  .  .  Are  we  fit  for  Him  ? 

Fain  would  I  feel  :  *  Because  God  chooseth  us, 
'  Are  we,  His  people,  holy  and  most  fit 
'  Unto  the  privilege  He  layeth  on  us  ' ; 
Fain  would  be  slave  unto  the  Most  High  God : 
But  shall  be  servant,  wisely  reasoning  of  Him 
And  of  His  patience,  His  authority, 
And  whether  we  be  worthy.   That  I  know 
Before  this  hour  of  my  temptation  pass 
I  shall  be  faithful  and  confirm'd  to  seek 
Anew  Jehovah,  saying  to  Him  :  '  Lord, 
Again  give  Thy  commandments  ' ;   that  I  know  me 
For  still  His  servant,  scarce  releaseth  me 
From  need  to  prove  and  comprehend  how  God 
Can  take  for  His,  servants  who  need  command  ; 
Slaves  who  can  yield  no  service  save  for  task  ! 
Is  God  task-master  and  no  God  of  Love  ? 
Then  were  He  Pharaoh,  and  we  further  from  Him 
By  every  journeying  in  the  wilderness ; 
His  pillar  of  fire  by  night,  of  cloud  by  day 
Some  false  god's ;  ay,  this  exodus  a  lapse 
Unto  idolatry ;  as  now  I  see  it 
7 


POEMS   OF  PERSONALITY 

Below  me  in  the  plain  accursedly  ! 
Then,  yea,  were  it  false  that  men  might  ever  be 
A  chosen  people  :  for  the  chosen  of  God 
Were  then  His  bond-slaves,  strangers  most  from 
Him! 

Nay,  God  hath  said  :  *  Ye  are  my  chosen  people  '. 
And  He  hath  led  us  forth  from  Pharaoh's  power 
To  be  no  longer  bond-slaves.   Wherefore  God 
Is  no  task-master,  but  a  God  of  Love  ! 
Whence,  then,  this  need  of  law  unto  our  love  ? 
Whence  this  relapse  and  infidelity  ; 
My  sacrilege,  impatience  ?    How  may  we 
Transform  God  to  a  seeming  task-master 
If  fit  to  be  the  chosen  of  a  God 
Who  hath  no  bond-slaves,  nay  ;  but  freeth  us  ? 
Lieth  the  fault  not  in  us  none  the  less 
While  yet  by  wonder  we  are  worthy  still  ? 
Pray'd  not  I  once  unto  the  Most  High  God  — 
'  Dismiss  Thy  servant,  Lord  ;  for  what  am  I 
'  To  bear  the  burden  of  Thy  high  command 
'  To  lay  on  Pharaoh  ?    Who  am  I  to  be 
'  God  unto  Pharaoh  as  Thy  word  hath  said  ? 
6  Wherefore,  I  pray  Thee,  Lord,  dismiss  me  now 

8 


MOSES 

'  And  give  Thy  word  to  one  more  fit  for  Thee  ! '  — 
Blaspheming.    For  Jehovah,  for  a  sign, 
Wither'd  mine  hand  within  my  bosom,  turning 
The  flesh  more  leprous  than  these  sands  ;  but  then 
Restored  it  whole  as  any  flesh  :  to  show 
By  miracle  how,  though  He  knew,  as  none 
Of  Israel  might  know,  my  leprousness, 
He  yet  would  make  of  me  an  holy  thing  ; 
Laying  a  task  on  me,  though  God  of  Love  ! 
Then  when  at  last  this  people  lay  encamp'd 
By  the  Red  Sea ;  and  Pharaoh's  host  drew  nigh 
To  threaten  all  with  vengeance  :  that  this  folk 
Lost  heart,  blaspheming  how  the  graves  of  God 
Were  narrower  than  Egypt's ;  did  not  He 
Stretch  a  great  cloud  along  the  coasts  by  night 
And  part  the  waters  with  a  wild  east  wind 
From  off  the  shallow  places  of  the  sea 
To  let  His  children  pass  unseen  ;  till  God 
Open'd  the  eyes  of  Pharaoh  but  too  late 
And  caught  him  with  returning  of  the  sea 
Betwixt  two  waters,  him  and  all  his  hosts ; 
And  saved  us  :  meaning  by  the  miracle 
How  though  He  knew  our  human  helplessness 
Who  fail'd  to  trust  His  help  before  the  world, 
9 


POEMS  OF   PERSONALITY 

He  yet  would  save  us  to  be  helpmate  to  Him  ! 
Wherefore  is  God  in  us  as  we  in  Him : 
Eternal  miracle  of  trust  and  worth  : 
We  worthy  of  the  trust  we  wholly  need. 

By  miracle  ?    By  nature  !   As  we  are  men, 

To  fail  from  faith  ;  as  we  are  God-in-us, 

To  be  His  people,  leading  on  and  on 

A  light  unto  the  nations  and  a  triumph 

In  each  endeavor ;  as  the  way  of  God 

Is  to  be  Father  to  His  folk  that  fail ! 

For  how  else  were  He  God  ?    How  else  were 

men?  — 

Therefore  need  I  in  nothing  now  deny 
Our  absolute  unfitness  to  be  God's 
Great  chosen  people  :  mine  unfitness  for 
This  life-long  privilege  of  speech  with  God. 
For  in  my  sacrilege  and  mute  despair 
At  these  idolatries,  I  feel  how  God 
Works  wondrously  unto  the  knowledge  of  God 
In  me  and  wisdom  of  His  ways  with  men. 
That  freedom  needs  a  law  and  is  no  love, 
Shall  mean  in  God's  good  time  a  Law  of  Love 
Unto  our  helpfulness.   Whence  are  we  now 
10 


MOSES 

God's  nearest,  fit  unto  the  task  we  find  ; 
And  therefore  chosen  of  the  God  of  Love.— 
Wherefore,  to  God  again  ;  and  say  :  '  Once  more, 
*  Lord,  grant  us  Thy  commands,  which  I  destroy 'd.' 


ii 


GAUTAMA 

THE  night  is  solemn  and  the  mind  awake  : 
Calm,  yea,  and  almost  wholly  passionless. 
The  myriad-glistering  blackness  of  these  boughs, 
Image  of  insight,  calleth  silently 
To  contemplation  whilst  my  limbs  repose 
Beneath  their  canopy  and  rest  with  them  — 
The  myriad  glistering  of  the  glow-fly  still 
Like  thought  that  rests  not  though  the  body  lies 
Along  earth  as  the  limbs  of  those  who  sleep, 
My  comrades  at  my  feet  who  learn  of  me. 
Though  these  friends  sleep  and  are  at  peace  as 

dead, 

I  sleep  not  but  must  muse  until  the  dawn, 
When  time  shall  be  that  action  be  resumed :  — 
Action,  ay,  nowise  consonant  with  peace.  — 

Nay,  then,  if  life  be  passion  and  they  be, 
The  passions,  wholly  evil,  how  prevail 
(Being  a  living  thing)  to  work  aught  good  ? 
If  all  be  false  whereof  we  are  aware 
(And  only  therefore  meriting  contempt  — 
The  things  of  sense  and  feelings  form'd  of  them), 

12 


GAUTAMA 

How  can  the  truth  be  anywise  attain 'd 
Save  in  annihilation  ?    And  to  cease 
Wholly  hath  never  been  mine  aim  to  teach.  — 
How  might  a  man  conceive  that  he  should  cease, 
Save  as  by  sleep  whence  even  these  blest  awake  ? 
And  how  conceive  continuance  without  sense 
Of  individual  being  still  maintain'd  ? 
There  is  no  soul  continuing  through  death 
Indeed  ;  yet  Karma  haply  were  some  soul 
To  those  enlightened  who  perceive  past  births, 
And  otherwise  might  hardly  operate 
To  yield  identity  to  several  forms. 
Yet  is  the  broad  assertion  full  believed 
(Oft  have  I  taught  it,  falsely  as  I  fear !) 
Of  depravation  and  delusiveness 
Which  wholly  true  would  transcend  remedy 
By  contradicting  any  self-felt  truth, 
Standard  of  good  or  cosmic  objective. 
And  my  philosophy  (as  men  construct 
My  doctrine  and  require  consistency 
Of  system,  I  as  seer  have  ne'er  discern'd  !)  — 
My  form'd  philosophy  were  nothing  save 
,A11  thought  be  nothingness  —  although  my  thought 
Belies  the  asseveration  !   To  assert 
13 


POEMS   OF  PERSONALITY 

Aught,  should  disprove  my  creed  of  nescience, 
Of  peace  by  contemplation  wholly  void. 
Therefore  am  I  two  teachers ;  and  my  word 
Some  duplex  half-truth  ;  and  the  world  I  leave 
Unto  these  faithful  (followers  of  me 
Here  sleeping  at  my  feet  through  the  soft  night), 
A  strife  irreconcilable  between 
Theory  and  practice  as  the  night  and  day! 
Lo  !  if  the  night's  denial  of  the  day 
Be  ultimate,  then  shall  they  never  wake 
To  dawning,  nor  might  this  my  musing  be 
A  vigil  of  the  truth  —  how  can  be  practice 
Where  theory  denies  ?    The  night  still  means 
The  coming  morn,  as  sense  though  wholly  false 
Implieth  an  intelligence  of  sense 
Not  void  but  individual  as  I  ponder. 
I  taught  not  truth  —  that  so  shall  practice  be 
Hollow  pretense  and  theory  be  proved 
Itself  sham  and  delusion  :  that  my  creed 
Be  subtlest  source  of  false  establishment 
In  faith,  as  likewise  in  vacuity 
Of  conduct  striving  still  toward  emptiness. 
Shall  I  allow  that  day,  my  noble  path, 
Shall  be  resumed  unreconciled  with  aught 
14 


GAUTAMA 

The  serious  night  and  vigil  thus  profound 
Have  taught  me  of  truth  consonant  with  Self  ? 

I  can  conceive  a  rule  of  faith  not  mine 
Yet  still  renunciative  (still  of  night 
The  peace-bringer  in  silence!),  based  in  truth 
Of  mutual  compassion  as  mine  own 
Though  nowise  seeking  thus  to  annihilate 
As  I  all  passion  whence  compassion  comes. 
Lo !  for,  behold !  if  sympathy  be  good 
(If  there  be  balm  of  night  even  in  day), 
Itself  the  highest  good  in  all  the  world 
(Strange  contradiction  of  soul-turpitude  !), 
Even  as  my  doctrine  teaches,  then  the  world 
Is  leaven'd  by  compassion  whilst,  without 
World,  would  the  highest  good  whereof  we  know 
Be  lost  for  substitution  of  the  void  : 
The  vanity  of  sleep,  in  place  of  peace 
By  comprehension  as  I  wait  the  day. 
I  cannot  yield  to  nothingness  a  world 
Of  whose  fate  I  am  still  compassionate  — 
Valuing  compassion  as  best  cause  of  peace ! 
1  with  a  world  to  save  must  still  redeem 
Myself  by  means  of  that  virtue  alone 
'5 


POEMS  OF  PERSONALITY 

Of  sympathy  which  hath  been  seed  and  source 
Of  all  my  ministry  !    I  seem  to  feel 
A  meaning  wherein  sympathy,  not  death, 
Not  riddance  of  this  individual  life, 
Achieves  salvation,  universalizing 
By  an  identity  of  distinctive  selves 
The  lone-lost  microcosm  :  how  the  day 
Of  insight,  ay,  in  action  saveth  man 
Day's  creature  ;  not  recourse  unto  the  night 
Of  moveless  contemplation.    Can  the  world 
Anywhere,  anywise  contain  a  man 
Who  fearlessly  shall  face  -as  I  faced  not 
The  loss  and  pain,  the  single  loneliness ; 
Alleviating  all  the  sin  of  the  world 
Not  by  abandoning  the  concrete  good 
But  suffering  good  in  evil  ?  In  some  least 
By  my  renunciation  have  I  thrust 
Evil  upon  myself  and  thus  done  good 
As  by  compassion  ;  and  have  thus  deserved 
Haply  not  that  absorption  in  the  All 
My  heart  hath  pray'd  for,  but  some  new  re-birth 
Even  in  a  clime  and  age  where  I  may  show 
Some  practical  divinity  of  man, 
Some  steadfastness  in  insight  sympathizing, 
16 


GAUTAMA 

Yea,  to  the  death  :  that  I  be  born  again  ! 
Methinks  I  see  me,  not  enthroned  on  high 
In  endless  musing  aimlessly  maintain'd 
For  lack  of  any  purport,  but  aloft 
In  suffering  rear'd  upon  a  torture-throne  ; 
And  then  anon  beneath  some  charnel-hole 
Buried  that  I  may  rive  and  rise  again 
Re-born  within  all  men  and  be  as  God 
A  savior  and  a  spirit  by  sympathy 
Nobly  maintain'd  through  sharing  of  all  woes 
In  self-appreciation :  that  all  men 
(Not  by  annihilation  of  their  woe 
With  self;  scarce  by  escape,  but  acclamation  !) 
Shall  feel  their  solidarity  with  God 
Even  through  my  ministration.    And  at  length 
Shall  the  apostles  of  that  last  god-birth 
Enlighten  these  my  followers  of  this  first : 
And  be  themselves  enlighten'd  by  contact 
With  rumor  of  this  earlier  mysticism. 
For  they  in  turn  through  ages  shall  have  lost 
The  first  fresh  personal  cognizance  of  God 
Within,  believing  only  that  I  died 
(I  the  world-passionate  of  the  later  days) 
To  save  mankind  ;  not  that  men,  each,  are  saved 
17 


POEMS  OF  PERSONALITY 

By  personal  compassion  as  was  I. 
Whence  in  the  contact  of  the  alien  creeds 
Shall  haply  spring  regenerance  of  both  :  — 
Faith  founded  as  my  present  faith  is  founded 
In  individual  potency  to  be 
(No  matter  how)  all  that  we  know  of  God  ; 
Yet  form'd  no  more  in  Nescience  for  a  Way 
Nor  in  denial  of  God-personism  : 
A  faith  form'd  as  my  future  faith  shall  be 
In  passionate  activity  of  self 
Instating  and  instated  of  the  time 
And  place  for  action,  not  (as  in  their  faith 
Of  ages  after  me)  declaring  truth 
To  be  of  time  and  place  not  theirs  but  mine 
Only  (forgetful  that  my  life  and  theirs 
Are  one  in  self  ness  and  divinity). 
Haply  a  third  —  were  it  conclusive  ?  —  birth 
In  guise  of  him  who  not  with  parable 
But  with  convincing  logic  may  construct 
The  scheme  of  such  a  world  of  godly  men  ! 
(Ah  !  but  the  beauty  of  a  forthright  proof 
To  faith,  yielding  consistence,  self-support 
And  system  to  truth  arbitrary  else  !) 
Haply  a  million  births,  each  yielding  truth 
18 


GAUTAMA 

In  some  new  words  but  never  losing  grasp 
(After  the  Two  who  spake  in  me  half-truths  — 
Two  half-truths  now ;    two  half-truths  now  and 

then  — 

Have  once  been  reconciled  within  the  Third  !) 
Of  the  divinity  of  sufferance, 
The  world-salvation  of  compassioning, 
The  nothingness  of  any  life  beyond 
A  world,  like  this,  of  limit  and  of  change  !  — 
Ha  !  and,  behold  !  the  glimmering  of  the  dawn 
Responsive  to  the  vision  of  that  Day, 
The  holy  passion  that  possesses  me. 
I  will  awake  these  sleepers  and  proclaim 
The  new-won  insight  of  the  truth  to-come  !  — 

Nay,  but,  alas  !  what  if  the  limit  be 

(Even  as  this  night,  ere  birth  of  day,  must  die 

Despite  their  mutual  interpreting) 

Also  a  final ;  and  my  life  (man-god, 

Yea,  though  I  am)  be  now  a  final  life 

Fill'd  with  its  half-truth,  and  the  nobler  half 

Be  never  mine  :  be  his,  that  later  Man? 

How  might  I  then  announce  this  failure  to  them  ? 

Though  self  can  cease  not,  neither  be  absorb'd 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Unto  Nirvana  (an  Nirvana  be 
Annihilation!)  yet  perchance  self  were 
Complete,  made  total  by  the  stint  of  deed 
Perform'd  'twixt  birth  and  death  (how,  I  know 

not; 

Lacking  a  logic  for  the  fact  I  feel !)  ?  — 
Lo  !  even  then  were  my  half-truth  the  whole 
Of  some  fulfillment.     (Hath  not  even  this  night, 
That  dieth  ere  the  day,  proclaim 'd  to  me 
Day's  healing  nighthood?)  —  In  this  world  of  pain 
The  pain  of  being  finally  fulfilPd 
In  self-acknowledged  error !   That  my  name, 
Believed-on,  shall  breed  nescience  and  a  creed 
Of  practical  observance  without  rule 
Or  check  to  superstition  ;  and,  so  far 
As  truth  is  known  of  me,  to  be  condemn'd 
As  worst  of  the  world's  failures,  who  would  save 
But  could  not :  saved  himself,  but  not  the  world !  — 
The  night  dies  back,  the  day  advanceth,  dread 
And  passionate,  unwitting  of  the  ways 
Of  insight,  cruel  beyond  sympathy  ; 
And  calling  on  me  to  maintain  that  creed 
Men  comprehend  of  peace  by  nescience  ! 
Did  I  declare  the  vision,  I  'd  achieve 
20 


GAUTAMA 

Truth  to  myself  by  sacrificing  hope 

To  save  the  world.    Behold  !  be  the  world  saved 

Though  in  my  heart  I  know  my  life  hath  fail'd  !  — 

But,  then,  if  life  be  evil,  how  not  fail  ? 


21 


CHRIST 

WHAT  were  the  purpose  of  a  proud  reply 

Unto  these  priests  ?   They  know  not  what  they  do. 

Yet,  whilst  they  still  talk  on,  must  I  in  soul 

Answer  *  before  my  father ',  yea,  for  me 

Their  witnessing :  ay,  is  it  false  or  no  ? 

Now,  while  the  tumult  of  their  questioners 

Is  fiercest,  while  the  insult  and  the  shame 

Shelter  me  with  impenetrable  hate 

As  from  the  love  of  any  man  of  men, 

May  I,  unwarp'd  of  too  much  passioning 

For  pity  of  these  people,  weigh  at  last 

Worth  of  my  ministry,  ay,  estimate 

Wherein  this  outcome  I  have  long  foreseen 

Were  fair  and  fortunate,  crowning  with  rich 

Accomplishment ;  wherein  't  were  inwardly 

As  openly  a  failure  !   Let  me  be 

Passionless  as  this  cup  is  passionate ; 

Yet,  as  no  Pharisee  of  all,  a  soul 

Alive  with  comprehension  of  the  loves 

And  hates  of  men ;  their  clingings  to  old  truths 

Grown  stale  and  false  ;  their  yearnings  still  for  new 

They  scarce  may  understand  :  hence  not  for  them 

22 


CHRIST 

Ripe  truth  :  I  among  men  a  man,  like  these 
Not  ripe  to  understand,  cleaving  to  false 
Even  for  the  need  of  men's  companionship 
By  ministry  ;  yea,  for  the  teaching's  sake 
Which  fails  from  truth  by  every  stale-meant  word 
Half-wantonly  meeting  the  times'  demand.  — 
Nay,  Caiaphas,  no  compromise  from  now ; 
No  failure  more  from  truth  by  any  word 
Meant  to  be  understanded.    I  have  found 
How  men  miscomprehend ;  and  still  have  told 
Nothing  of  my  best  message  unto  men. 
Now  let  my  death  atone ;  for  sins  of  men 
As  my  sin  let  this  crucifixion  come 
For  my  full  meaning  and  companionship 
In  ministry  no  man  need  understand 
To  comprehend  its  purport  to  be  true. 
But,  lo  !  (how  safe  this  uproar  shuts  me  in 
Out  of  the  sight  and  sound  of  all  whose  ears 
And  eyes  would  fain  have  open'd  !)  how  did  I 
For  zeal  and  pity  yield  a  leading  where 
The  light  could  scarcely  enter.   All  seem'd  truth 
Even  as  I  spake  it ;  image  seem'd  the  fact ; 
Figure,  the  message.   For  I  loved  men  so. 
Now  is  the  figure  forsworn  for  the  fact ; 
23 


POEMS  OF   PERSONALITY 

Image,  despoil'd  of  vision,  witness'd  forth 
In  guise  of  ministry.   Yea,  is  their  speech 
False-witness?    Father,  or  have  I  proved  false? — 
Nay,  not  from  now  !    Only,  let  thought  rehearse 
The  history:  what  was';  what  should  have  been. 

So,  Caiaphas,  speak  thou  whilst  silently 
I  weigh  thine  accusations.   Let  them  swear 
Their  false  truths :  I  will  take  upon  my  life 
Their  falsehood,  to  attain  unto  their  truth 
Of  inmost. self-belief  even  by  my  death; 
Not  otherwise.  — So,  they  accuse  me  here 
Of  sundry  blasphemies.    Have  I  blasphemed  ? 
Scarce  by  intention.   Yet  I  grant  them  truth 
Of  plausible  misinterpretations.    I 
Spake  but  in  parable,  for  want  of  words 
To  meet  their  outworn  ways  of  speech,  yet  speak 
The  new  truth  utterly.    I  gave  them  stones 
For  bread:  the  bread,  how  should  they  eat  of  it  ?— 
So,  I  have  'stirr'd  sedition ',  counseling 
No  reverence  for  priests'  authority! 
What  was  my  word  ?    '  Blind  leaders  of  the  blind  ' ; 
.'  Wolves  in  sheep's  clothing '.   Did  I  mean  or  nay  ? 
Father,  'mid  this  serenity  of  hate 
24 


CHRIST 

(Love-perspicacity  of  inwardness), 
Which  shields  me  round  (concludes  within  my  will 
An  infinite  use)  from  any  need  to  serve 
Too  sympathizingly  the  blind  and  wolves, 
Find  I  the  fact-interpretation :  these 
Blind  but  by  plenitude  of  light  in  me, 
Wolves  but  by  my  full  innocence  of  harm ; 
I  still  by  figure  of  the  fact,  by  so 
Refusing  self-responsibility 
Of  imputation,  equally  with  them 
Blind  leader,  wolf-destroyer  of  the  fold : 
Such  for  the  figure.   Save  the  new  truth  come 
Despoiling  old,  remains  old  error  truth; 
Save  the  old  error  stay  to  be  gainsaid, 
How  were  the  truth  not-false?    And  I  had  meant: 
I  find  them  blind  and  wolves  who  save  for  me 
Had  been  light-leaders,  guardians  of  the  fold : 
I  thereby  blind  and  wolf;  they,  through  my  truth 
Proved  of  their  falsehood,  equally  with  me 
Light-leaders,  shepherds.    By  my  parable 
I  nowise  speaking  utterly  a  truth ; 
I  an  authority  sans  self-belief : 
Thus  have  I  sinn'd  against  authority. 
And  men  miscomprehended  but  the  more.  — 
25 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

So,  I  have  '  mock'd  the  Sabbath-law  ',  who  heal'd 
Sick  on  that  day  and  ate  with  unwash'd  hands 
'Mid  sinners!   Not  against  authority 
These  deeds  but  rather  against  forms  approved 
Of  present  practice ;  items  half  belief 
If  still  half  sanction?   Yet  were  sin  the  same: 
A  failure  to  confess  responsible 
For  law's  shortcomings  me  the  source  of  such 
Subverting  practice;  else  a  failure  to 
Admit  law-conscienced  deeds  of  mine  worth  faith 
Only  by  virtue  of  denying  law. 
As  of  the  blind  authority  I  taught 
For  teaching's  sake  as  though  authority 
Beyond  mere  man's  opinion  crush'd  theirs  out  — 
Meaning :  my  more  wide-wrought  opinion  proved 
In  virtue  of  my  comprehension  theirs 
Not  self-sufficient,  total ;  so  of  law 
I  spake  as  though  some  source  beyond  all  men's 
Deliberate  practice  posited  my  deeds 
For  lawful  —  meaning,  as  I  now  aver 
(Yea,  Caiaphas,  push  swift  to  judgment  lest 
My  soul  forestall  thee  !):  sense  of  law  in  me, 
Values  of  ordinance  for  purpose  'proved 
Of  conscience,  show'd  their  formal  sanctionings 
26 


CHRIST 

Trivial,  comprehensible  of  mine 
Intent ;  by  virtue  of  my  will,  annull'd  ; 
None  less  a  lawfulness  save  law-deposed. 
Such  were  my  sin  'gainst  sanction  ;  I  a  law 
Without  self-proclamation  utterly. 
And  men  miscomprehended  but  the  more.  — 
So,  I  have  '  taken  upon  me  to  forgive 
Sins  '  ?    And  in  so  forgiving  fail'd  to  show 
'T  were  but  my  holier  bearing  in  my  faith 
For  new  law  beyond  sanction  which  show'd  sin 
(Otherwise  righteousness  concluding  all, 
Which  theretofore  were  righteous,  for  some  sin) 
For  sinful ;  as  the  sinfulness  alone 
(Like  previous  sin  proving  their  deeds  some  right) 
Proved  righteousness  in  my  deeds  :  righteousness, 
The  wonder,  beauty,  meaning  but  of  life 
Conclusive  utterly,  self-organized, 
So  world-constructive  inly.    And  I  spake 
As  though  some  mercy  over  beyond  men's 
Sense  of  a  mutual  frailty  each  for  each 
Forewent  the  punishment  —  meaning  :  mine  own 
Insight  and  sympathy  of  soul's  estate 
In  me  as  them  saw  each  unto  himself 
A  scourge  sufficient ;  hence,  a  mercy-seat. 
27 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

So  did  I  sin,  forgiving ;  I,  a  peace 
Without  avow'd  self-conquest.    Can  I  now 
Assume  by  any  grace  beyond  this  sin's 
Self -torment  to  forgive  my  life  at  last  ? 

Nay,  't  is  my  soul  that  fail'd  in  all  these  things 
Myself  that  spake  and  sinn'd.    I  at  the  last 
But  learn  the  nature  of  each  son  of  man, 
Myself  as  any  :  so  to  speak  and  sin 
Failing  of  self-responsibility  ; 
By  reason  of  the  need  of  minist'ring, 
Of  compromise  with  souls  not  mine  (nay,  mine 
By  individual  insight!)  thereby 
Imputing  to  some  God  beyond  this  world, 
Some  world  beyond  this  soul's,  the  sinless  lore 
Of  full  accomplishment :  but  such  would  be 
Nothing  accomplish'd.    Lo  !  it  is  my  truth 
This  falling  short  of  truth  ;  even  my  death 
Were  half-accomplishment,  some  falling-short 
Of  perfect  self-possession  save  I  be 
Inevitably  born  for  compromise 
Rightly  fulfill'd,  ay,  comprehended  well 
By  sheer  misunderstanding.    Now  I  see 
No  failure.   Let  me  but  seal  up  the  sum 
28 


CHRIST 

Of  perfect  operation  by  one  last 
Word,  one  last  teaching,  compromise  of  truth 
Supreme  of  self-divinity  with  their 
Stale  fiction  of  a  God  of  Abraham  ! 
What  were  a  God  in  whom  no  falling-short 
Betray 'd  truth's  utmost  self-sufficiency 
By  error,  self-proved,  constantly  annull'd  ? 
Such  self-annulment  constituting  sin 
Divine  :  for  where  were  any  act  not  God  ? 
What  were  a  world  beyond  soul's  world  which  fills 
All  birth  and  death  with  sacrifice,  through  strength 
Of  service,  mutual  ministry,  each  least 
Person  proved  universal,  absolute 
By  world-inclusive  insight,  soul  through  soul : 
Absolving  misinterpretation,  yea, 
By  rich  love-needing  :  still  gainsaying  hate  ? 
Let  me  annul  this  last  uproar  of  hate 
To  one  death-sanction  for  the  love  I  bear 
All  men.    Let  me  avow  to  this  sin-world 
Its  sin's  finality  by  being  as  sin 
Still  self-redeeming  ;  nay,  no  mercy-seat 
Beyond  :  hence  sin's  forgiveness  each  through  each, 
Let  me  uphold  the  law's  authority 
By  reason  of  our  self-accountable 
29 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Ultimate  judgment  both  of  false  and  true. 

Let  me  declare  God  and  my  ministry 

One  ;  scarce  by  dissipation  of  this  strength 

To  'heaven's  right-hand  and  wonder-throne ',  though 

still 

In  those  sole  terms  their  ears  can  understand 
Of  physical  kingship  and  some  power  afar. 
Let  me  affirm  (if  not  that  men  may  now 
Have  insight,  that  some  hour  they  apprehend) 
My  manhood,  conscienced  personality 
By  virtue  of  this  self-responsible 
Accountability  through  every  act 
For  failure  as  accomplishment ;  my  spirit 
Divine.   And  there  is  nought  beside  divine 
Save  world-belief,  conscience-totality ! 

Hark  !    For  they  now  accuse  me :  '  Didst  thou  say : 
'  I,  God  are  one  "  ?   And  art  thou  then  the  great 
'  Messiah  ?  '  —  Shall  1  give  them  of  the  bread 
Of  life,  faith  of  my  faith  :  still  in  their  phrase 
Of  false-proved  figure  ?    Shall  I  stand  at  last 
For  understanding's  sake  so  utterly 
Miscomprehended  ?    Ay,  for  such  the  full 
Accomplishment ;  that  all  shall  comprehend 
30 


CHRIST 

The  absoluteness,  so  divinity 

Of  failure  ;  the  all-comprehensive  truth 

Of  self-sufficiency  even  to  death  ! 

Lo !  for  the  teaching's  sake  !    I,  born  to  teach 

Death-mastery,  the  overcoming  of 

The  last  infirmity :  man's  fear  to  fail  ! 

Here  in  this  final  failure  to  speak  truth 

('T  is  inmost  holiness ;  't  is  ultimate  use) 

Is  mine  accomplishment.  —  The  hush  is  vast. 

Man's  whole  life  listens,  waiting  on  the  word 

Which  saves  the  world  : 

"  Caiaphas ;  thou  hast  said." 


PILATE 

NOW  are  they  hot  for  Herod :  they,  that  pack 

Of  priestly  wolves,  of  scribes  and  sects  and  dogs 

Of  jealous  dogma  !   Would  but  Cassar  send 

A  rescript  for  their  riddance  !   Yea,  some  year 

Shall  tens  of  thousands  Jews  hang  crucified 

'Twixt  heaven  and  earth,  I  warrant  them.  —  Till  then  ! 

Now,  what  of  Herod  ?    Will  the  flattery 

Befool  him  ?    Will  he  exercise  a  right 

Of  judgment  o'er  his  subject  in  a  seat 

Not  his ;  and  give  the  Roman  legions  cause 

To  rape  Perasa  ?    Will  he  scent  the  trick, 

Send  Jesus  unjudged  back  to  Pilate's  door 

By  Hebrew  cunning  ?    Rather  may  he  seek 

A  mutual  flattery  in  pronouncing  this  one 

Free  Galilean  ;  in  Jerusalem 

Not  his  to  hold.    For  Herod  is  astute, 

Knows  that  I  favor  not  their  Sanhedrin 

Nor  law-prerogative  in  priests  and  scribes ; 

But  would  for  Cassar  Cassar's.  —  How  that  phrase 

Of  this  philosopher  fits  well  the  tongue  !  — 


32 


PILATE 

And  what  of  him  they  carry  with  them  there 
Cold,  calm  and  stoic,  him  whose  blood  they  seek 
For  being  perchance  more  Caesar's  friend  than  they  ? 
Now  while  they  swarm  at  Herod's  gate  I  '11  set 
(Should  they  by  evil  chance  hurl  howling  back) 
My  soul  more  steadfast  to  resist  their  lust 
Of  blood  by  musing  on  his  meanings  here.  .  .  . 

When  I  did  question  he  did  plain  reply.  .  .  . 
Even  as  I  told  them  I  shall  still  maintain : 
'  The  man  is  just.    I  find  no  fault  in  him  '.  - 

How  can  I  then  condemn  him  ?    For  the  law 
Chastises  not  the  proven  innocent. 
Only  — there  are  causes  beyond  the  law 
Why  Caesar's  service  might  enjoin  for  now 
An  acquiescence  ?    For  they  well  might  raise 
Tumult  like  that  at  Caesarea  when 
I,  being  unprepared  (as  now  !)  to  quell 
By  force  of  arms,  was  forced  to  yield  a  point 
For  Caesar's  sake.   It  will  not  come  to  that. 
Yet  but  I  wish  I  had  my  garrison 
Of  Caesarea  at  Jerusalem  !  - 
No  more  of  this.    'T  is  Caesar's,  best,  to  sway 
33 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

The  mob  by  absolute  justice  ;  not  by  fear 
Of  legionaries  ;  nor  by  mine  own  fear 
Of  being  impeach'd  at  Rome  for  failing  please 
The  Jews  —  a  fool's  chimera  !    I  have  friends 
High-placed  for  my  defense.   And  yet  — 

I  '11  still 

Deny  priest- vengeance  and  protect  the  man. 
Ay,  fain  would  I  address  me  to  his  soul 
To  learn  of  him.     For  is  not  wisdom  wealth, 
Power  and  kingship  to  the  citizen  ? 
How  much  more  thus  shall  I  over  this  folk 
Be  governor,  be  Cassar's  servant  well 
By  being  disciple ;  he  my  master.     I 
Decree  no  punishment.     I  give  to  him 
His  freedom  so  but  he  converse  with  me, 
Yield  fair  reply  to  questions  fairly  put 
In  daily  intercourse.     I  offer  him 
No  courtiership ;  for  he  would  spurn  it  of  me. 
He  is  no  parasite  ;  is  too  much  man 
Of  wealth,  power,  kingship  even  in  himself 
To  want  a  Roman's  favor :  he,  the  son, 
So  credibly  they  tell  me,  of  some  god  ? 
Haply.     At  all  events  a  man  who  stood 
And  nobly  said :  *  A  king  am  I '  —  still  meaning 
34 


PILATE 

A  wise  man.     For  he  added:  '  But  my  kingdom 

Is  not  of  this  world  '  —  meaning,  as  I  know, 

Not  kingdom  like  to  Caesar's.    'T  is  such  wisdom 

I  would  attain ;  for  I  am  weary  of 

A  Caesar's  favor  and  a  people's  wrath. 

'T  is  some  fresh  Attic  teaching  that  he  speaks 

And  I  would  fain  acquire ;  fain  to  be  king 

As  he ;  and  rid  of  this  time-serving  strife 

Which  fawns  and  flatters,  yelps  and  snarls;  and  seeks 

No  well-made  manhood,  true  self — 

Hark!  What  sounds! 

So  soon  swung  back !    And  in  what  hot-flung  haste ! 
What  fangs  and  wolf-yells !    I  've  but  twenty  spears; 
The  rest  at  Caesarea.    Will  my  friends 
Stand  firm  at  Rome  ?    Can  any  man  be  wise 
Needlessly  to  provoke  a  tumult,  force 
Himself  outdriven  from  Jerusalem 
To  Caesar's  wrath  and  uttermost  disgrace 
Just  for  some  stickling  at  the  law  ?    I  ne'er 
Let  law  prevent  my  vengeance ;  shall  not  now 
Be  hinder'd  of  my  glut  of  blood  for  this, 
When  the  time  serves.     But  now,  't  is  Caesar's  best 
Service  to  yield  a  point  so  seeming-small, 
Injustice  to  one  man.     Scourging,  perchance, 

35 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

May  sate  them  ?    At  the  worst  'tis  forced  upon  me, 
I'll  leave  it  to  the  popular  voice  to  choose. 
Not  mine  the  guilt.  — 

And  see !    What  fool  is  this 
They  mock  at  ?    Certainly,  a  man  who  makes 
So  fine  a  fool-king  can  be  no  fit  source 
For  Pontius'  instruction !    I  were  fool 
To  make  weight  of  the  matter.     Let  men  bring 
A  basin  that,  when  things  go  ill  with  him, 
I  '11  show  them  how  I  wash  before  all  men 
My  soul  from  business  with  this  King  of  Fools ! 


JUDAS 

JUDAS !  —  The  name  is  hateful ;  yet  it  clings ! 

Yon  street-hag  jeer'd  at  *  Judas  ' !  —  Such  a  priest 

Call'd  'Judas?    Judas? '  and  I  came  and  took 

The  thirty  pieces  which  he  offer'd  me; 

And  kept  them  with  me,  with  me  till  but  now ! 

The  Master  still  said  :  '  Judas,  thou  art  he  ' ! 

Judas !    It  is  the  name  of  such  as  I ! 

It  hurries  desperate  now,  grim  through  noon's  glare, 

Judas!    I  thought  to  have  flung  the  name  beside, 
There  with  the  thirty  pieces  now  I  flung 
Full  in  his  face,  the  priest  who  call'd  me  by  it! 
Yon  street-hag  I  pass'd  headlong,  cursed  I  her 
For  any  cause  save  'Judas  '  ?  —  If  perchance 
She  knew  not  I  did  give  the  money  up  ? 
Call'd  me  the  old  name  for  the  stale  reproach  ? 
Would  speak  some  other  could  I  tell  even  her 
The  torment  and  repentance  ?  — 

None  would  speak 

A  new  name :  not  the  bearer  of  no  name ! 
Nor  should  I  hear  it:  I  can  hear  but  one, 
Judas!     Nought  else  so  hateful  in  the  world 
37 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

As  cheek  by  jowl  with  me  to  cleave  by  me 
And  be  my  leman-life  to  hound  me  on : 
Even  as  I  kiss'd  him  with  a  leman's  kiss. 
The  hag  shrank  from  me;  but  the  name  abides. 
The  world  would  let  me  go.    Not  so  this  Judas; 
Which  will  with  me  and  hang  with  me  this 

hour ! 
With  me  :  a  Namelessness  just  by  this  name  ! 

Judas  !   It  was  the  Master  called  me  by  it. 

T  is  so  it  sticks  !  —   Not  that  did  such  a  hag 

Jeer  *  Judas ' !   She  were  such  an  one  to  deem 

All  creatures  Judas.   I  but  yield  a  name 

To  all  men  and  all  women  ;  not  myself 

The  Judas  solely.    Nor  that  such  a  priest 

Call'd  '  Judas  ? ' !   When  I  flung  the  pieces  back 

Was  Judas  quite  a  nobler  sort  of  man 

Who  does  God  service  nor  demands  fair  pay ; 

The  imputation  cancePd  of  reproach  ; 

And  '  Judas  ?  '  flattery :  a  name  not  quite 

For  any  creature ;  even  I  myself 

Not  Judas  wholly !    Ah !    Were  these  things 

so ! 

Then  should  I  hang  this  day  with  half  the  hope 
38 


JUDAS 

Men  might  forget  Judas  had  such  a  name.  — 
Nay,  but  the  Master :  *  Judas,  it  is  thou  '  !  — 

Judas  !    It  is  my  name  and  mine  alone. 

Judas  !   I  thank  thee,  Master ;  who  speak'st  truth, 

The  right  name  :  Judas,  wholly  and  alone. 

Judas  !    I  thank  thee,  Master ;  that  'tis  I 

Who  hang  this  hour  for  being  but  such  a  name. 

There  is  no  other.   I  fulfill  the  name 

Utterly ;  take  away  from  all  men  else 

And  women  possibility  to  be 

As  Judas ;  none  less  evidence  the  world 

Judas  for  pitiless  perdition  ;  not 

World's  flattery  nor  menace  any  more. 

The  street-hag  knew  she  need  not  fear  to  be 

As  Judas  ;  Judas  were  her  saving  strength 

Who  knew  none  other.   Such  a  priest  did  know 

Blood-guilt  were  no  God-service.   Both  are  saved 

By  my  perdition  through  the  Master's  word  ! 

Master,  I  thank  thee.   Judas  !    'T  is  my  truth. 

Here  is  the  bough  where  Judas  for  the  world 

Hangs  that  he  be  true  Judas :  and  none  else  ! 


39 


MARY 

THOSE  distant  moving  twain  upon  the  hills, 
Those  will  be  John  and  James  returning  to  me 
Even  from  afar  and  after  many  days. 
They  had  not  faith  to  '  wait  His  coming  ',  here 
With  Zebedee  their  father  and  with  me  ; 
Must  needs  go  forth  and  among  many  men 
To  preach  His  gospel.    How  could  they  expect 
Men  to  receive  the  truth  they  scarce  have  held  : 
The  faith  of  my  Son's  presence  with  all  men  ? 
'T  was  Peter's  place  ;  't  was  all  of  truth  he  had, 
To  be  evangel :  theirs  to  love  and  '  wait '. 
'T  is  the  first  failure.    For  my  Son  fail'd  not. 
Yet  used  He  home  to  me  in  those  great  days 
And  I  used  forth  to  meet  Him.    Let  me  now 
Anticipate  these  prodigals  who  come 
(These  distant  waxing  twain  upon  the  hills) 
Even  as  my  Son  was  wont  to  come  to  me, 
In  those  first  days  of  calling  of  the  Twelve, 
Along  this  footway.    I  will  fare  me  forth 
To  meet  them.  Would  there  were  my  Son  with  them !  • 

So  soon  the  world  forgets.    Forget  not  I ! 
40 


MARY 

My  soul  is  living  with  the  light  of  words, 
Deeds,  looks  and  breathings  of  the  soul  of  Him 
My  Son,  and  my  Son  only  !    No  pains  else 
Did  bear  Him  to  the  birth  that  shall  not  die. 
Yet,  those  Hosannahs.   Yet,  that  feast  of  palms 
And  people  hailing  Him,  my  Son,  my  Son  ! 
Where  are  those  many  faithful  ?    Are  they  then 
Crucified  as  my  Son,  as  my  soul  too ; 
And  may  not  rise  again  as  He,  my  Son, 
Hath  risen  and  my  very  soul  with  Him  ? 
Were  they  so  fond  and  are  they  now  so  faint  ? 
How  sad  must  be  their  weakening.    T  is  for  them 
The  fond  yet  faithless  that  my  whole  heart  grieves 
Even  for  James  and  John  amongst  the  rest ; 
Who  needs  must  seek  complete  a  work,  so  whole 
Already  with  His  mission  ;  needs  must  forth 
To  supplement  His  teaching  :  and  have  fail'd 
Convert  a  world  which  was  already  His 
In  His  good  time  ;  yea,  now  and  always  now. 
See  they  not :  it  is  still  the  selfsame  earth 
Of  Him,  my  Son,  in  which  His  words  and  deeds, 
His  looks  and  breathings  sanctified  things  all, 
Yea,  resurrected  God's  sweet  countryside 
To  an  undying  wonder  ?    Nay,  the  world 


POEMS   OF  PERSONALITY 

Of  speechless  things  and  folk  without  a  soul 
Forgets  not.   Can  men's  souls  alone  forget  ? 
Alone  forget,  alone  who  need  to  know  ? 
These  are  the  pastures  and  the  little  hills 
Of  olive ;  this,  the  way  wherein  I  walk, 
Was  trod  by  Him  ;  and  yonder  is  the  blue 
Whereon  He  stood  appearing  unto  them. 
It  is  His  earth  and  His  unendingly ; 
Mine  earth  by  faith  in  Him,  by  '  waiting  for  ' 
Fulfillment  presently,  yea,  present  now 
Without  completion  more.   Can  aught  forget  ? 
Yet  but  have  James  and  John  forgot  and  fail'd; 
Now  home  are  coming,  ay,  to  tell  me  of  it 
For  comfort's  sake.  And  I  will  comfort  them, 
Tell  them  anew  the  story  for  their  faith.  — 

Yea,  here  are  John  and  James,  who  from  afar 
And  after  many  days  return  to  me 
Even  by  this  footway,  whom  I  wandering  forth 
A  little  further  than  my  daily  wont 
Now  greet  in  coming,  as  they  crown  this  hill 
Sudden  appearing.    I  have  yearn'd  for  them 
In  absence.   And  their  nearness  seems  a  new 
Rebuke  and  chastening.   In  their  mien  I  see 
42 


MARY 

No  sadness  for  the  world  of  humankind 
Their  brethren,  brethren  also  of  my  Son. 
No  sadness  for  themselves ;  no  failure,  no  : 
But  a  great  light.   The  spirit  of  my  Son 
Transfiguring  their  faces  to  mine  eyes 
Is  with  them  twain.   And  all  their  poise  is  high ; 
And  as  they  come  they  talk  on  mighty  things 
And  bring  a  whole  world  with  them.  — Shame,  that  I 
Had  deem'd  myself  worthy  to  hold  alone 
(Deeming  these  John  and  James  and  all  men  faithless) 
The  sacred  intercession  unto  men ; 
Had  deem'd  the  work  complete,  though  I  in  mine 
Undue  assumption  dream'd  that  I  alone 
Knew  this  His  second  coming  evermore  ! 
I  ?    What  have  I,  who  weakly  tread  this  way 
Within  this  circuit  of  these  little  hills, 
To  know  of  God's  good  mercy,  through  my  Son 
And  these,  unto  all  multitudes  beside 
Who  only  need  to  hear,  so  to  be  saved  ? 
Nay,  but  who  needs  must  hear ;  else  are  not  saved  ! 
Yea,  I  have  sinn'd,  been  faithless.    Can  I  bear 
Their  holy  greeting  ?    Will  mine  ears  receive  : 
Mine  ears  that  did  so  very  near  forget 
The  meaning  of  His  sacrifice  for  men  ? 

43 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Was  I  His  mother,  who  forswore  His  world, 
Denied  within  my  soul  men's  faith  in  Him  ?  — 
Hark  to  their  greeting ;  't  is  as  my  Son's  voice  : 

'  We  hail  thee  :  Mother !  —  For  no  man  forgets  ! 
*  The  people  all  receive  Him  with  the  Word !  ' 


44 


MOHAMMED 

AND  I  arise  and  face  the  flowing  east 

As  in  the  days  of  youth,  before  the  Creed.  — 

Here  have  I  sate  amongst  these  tombs  of  stone 

Beside  Medina  in  the  desert  stark 

This  night-long.   Till  the  dawn  at  last  hath  sprung ; 

And,  with  the  dawn,  God's  speech  vouchsafed  anew 

Unto  the  worn  and  feeble  ;  as  of  yore 

In  days  of  strength  to  me  on  Meccan  hills :  — 

Now  in  the  name  of  God,  compassionate 

And  merciful,  who  speaketh  by  my  mouth  ! 

For  I  have  said  :   '  Cometh  a  day  when  no 
1  Soul  can  avail  aught  for  another  soul ; 
'  For  the  ordering  on  that  day  is  with  God. 
*  Yea,  and  the  soul  shall  know  what  it  hath  wrought '. 

Thus  have  I  said  :  '  The  soul  shall  surely  know  '. 

Thus  have  I  said,  knowing  the  soul  shall  know  ; 

Knowing  that  God's  the  ordering  on  that  day  : 

And  therefore  certain  of  the  ways  of  God  ; 

I  intimately  cognizant  of  God 

As  of  my  being  and  my  very  soul. 

Wherefore  a  new  interpretation  springs 

Of  this  my  ministry  :  even  as  the  sun 
45 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Startles  to  flame  yon  angels  of  the  gale, 
The  storm-sands  swirling  just  above  his  bed, 
As  he,  the  lord  of  heaven,  awakes,  starts  forth 
And  burns  the  world  to  wisdom ;  so  my  soul 
Sees  but  itself  in  all  that  it  hath  wrought 
And  makes  a  day  of  judgment  of  its  own  ! 
Lo  !  if  I  intimately  speak  for  God 
The  truths  that  yet  spring  wholly  in  myself 
By  my  conviction  and  imagining  ; 
Then  are  not  God  and  I  even  in  these  truths 
One,  as  the  truths  are  now  intrinsic  to  me ; 
My  judgment  and  my  prophecy,  the  same  ? 

Is  it  a  dream,  this  hour  that  I  have  taught 
Of  future  resurrection,  even  that  day 
To-come  of  judgment ;   is  it  then  a  dream  ? 
Is  this  high-streaming  sun,  that  bursts  across 
These  shimmering-silent  death-stones,  God's  sole 

sun  ; 

And  all  these  hosts  of  waiting  dead,  asleep 
From  now  forever ;  and  no  waking  more  ? 
For  if  my  lord  and  judge  be  with  me  one 
And  this  my  prophecy  be  judgment  too  — 
As  now  I  feel  it  in  the  certainty 
46 


MOHAMMED 

That    souls  shall   know ;    I  therefore  knowing  the 

soul ! — 

What  space  be  for  the  plain  tautology 
Of  God  beyond  man  ;  who  am  in  myself 
God  in  so  far  as  God  hath  power  at  all ; 
Who  am  mine  estimator  and  my  judge 
Now  whilst  the  common  dawn  leaps  forth  to-day  ? 
If  I  have  fix'd  a  faith  for  every  man 
Even  unto  all-time,  am  not  I  at  fault 
To  fix  for  future  what  were  novel-sprung 
To  each  anew,  and  only  thereby  fix'd, 
Man's  birthright :  judgment,  conscience  of  himself  ? 
Shall  not  each  man  who  leaps  as  I  have  leap'd 
With  sunsurge  to  divine  identity 
(Upright  nor  prostrate-cringing  any  more  !) 
Condemn  the  pitiful  hypocrisy, 
The  hitherto  shamefacedness  that  led  me, 
Feeling  the  fire  within  yet  to  deny 
And  say  :  '  God  shall  be  ' ;  meaning  '  God  is  now  '  ? 
Yea,  and  if  God  be  Now,  how  might  I  fix 
A  faith  to  all  men  who  must  equally 
Each  in  his  time  be  God's  ripe  judgment-day 
With  estimate  anew  to  suit  each  time 
As  perfect  as  is  now  to-day  my  faith  ? 
47 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

All  was  illusion  ;  both  that  hour  to-come, 

And  power  to  fix  faith  to  a  future  age  ! 

Lo  !  in  my  newly-found  divinity 

I  judge  ;  and  judging  must  condemn  the  creed 

That  calPd  me  here,  that  laid  these  dead  about  me 

Waiting  beyond  Medina  for  the  word 

Of  God,  in  desertness  enduringly  ! 

The  word  of  God  !    'T  were  then  idolatrousness 
To  wait  the  speech  of  the  oracle,  when  now 
The  living  God  is  speaking  as  I  speak. 
One  God  or  many,  if  beyond  the  heart 
Of  any  man,  were  utmost  blasphemy 
Alike,  unworthy  of  mine  absolute  soul.  — 
And  yet,  the  comprehension  of  the  crowd  ! 
Lo  !  had  I  said  :  '  The  very  God  behold  ye  !  ' 
Then  had  they  worship'd  me  :  and  been  betray'd  ! 
Yea,  had  I  cried  :  *  Earth's  judgment  is  fulfill'd 
1  Even  in  the  judgment- reasoning  of  each  ! ' 
Then  had  they  stolen  and  slaughter'd,  ay,  straight 
way 

With  obvious  impunity  ;  and  sinn'd  ! 
Yea,  for  the  folk  that  feel  not  Godhood  in  them, 
No  all-responsible  insight  of  earth 
48 


MOHAMMED 

(And  how  there  be  such  godless,  yea,  I  know  not ; 
Though  till  this  instant  was  I  one  of  them 
Wholly  ;  as  now  in  ignorance  confess'd  !), 
Were  judgment  yet  to-come  and  God  afar ; 
His  speech  unheard  save  still  reported  to  them 
Through  all  their  days.   And  therefore  must  there  be 
Slaughter  and  rapine  in  the  name  of  God 
To  fix  faith,  as  I  find  it,  unto  all 
Who  feel  not  God.    And  therefore  were  it  meet 
That  these  within  their  graves  should  wait  till  God 
Alive  in  future  peoples  plough  their  bones 
Into  some  sudden  garden  where  was  waste : 
And  end  earth's  desolation.   Though  myself 
Have  had  some  resurrection  :  and  am  saved  ! 

So  I  incline  and  pray  toward  Meccan  fanes. 


49 


DANTE 

I,  DANTE,  have  depicted  all  these  things 
In  imitation  of  mine  heaven  and  hell 
Within  ;  I,  Dante,  drew  them  as  I  saw  them 
To  duplicate  the  passion  of  my  soul : 
Like  some  basilica  of  Christ  on  earth. 
And  like  some  lordly-hewn  basilica 
Covering  earth  where  only  naked  earth 
Alone  before  had  been  ;  so  have  I  given 
Spiritual  power  of  philosophy 
Where  had  been  brutish  feud  and  vacant  brawl. 
All  things  now  known  beneath  the  heavens,  beneath 
Earth  or  beyond  the  empyrean,  all 
Have  furnish 'd  forth  mine  imagery,  themselves 
Acquiring  passion  as  I  spake  of  it. 
And  all  have  been  a  picture  of  my  soul.  — 
This  Beatrice,  would  her  own  soul  know 
Herself  so  marvelous  matured  with  truths 
Till  now  not  said  of  woman  ?    Would  the  child, 
The  little  maid  I  knew,  the  bride-elect, 
And  lastly  the  frail  matron  recognize 
The  mouthpiece  of  Madonna  and  of  Christ  ? 
This  Beatrice,  should  I  look  to  take 
50 


DANTE 

Her  salutation  passing  in  the  street 
As  formerly,  or  should  I  see  some  wench 
Unlike  the  lady  of  that  crystalline  ? 
Shall  not  mankind  to-come,  seeing  my  soul 
So  strong,  so  tragic-passionate  through  this 
The  symbolism,  come  to  ask  at  last : 
'  Was  Beatric^  woman  of  the  flesh 
'At  all  ?    Was  Dante  this  world's  citizen  ?  ' 
How  subtler  than  subtlest  theology 
This  doubt  and  question  !    In  my  soul  to-day 
An  introversion  of  the  accustom 'd  orb  ! 
My  life  hath  been  iron  reality 
As  spear,  axe,  hauberk  and  those  towers  of  strength 
Men  rear'd  in  their  Firenze  out  of  stone; 
Stone,  yea,  and  iron  hath  been  my  pilgrimage 
Through  years  of  exile ;  and  my  tragedy 
Hath  only  been  so  flame-hot  passionate 
With  bitterness  and  stern  relentless  wrath 
At  evil  Italy,  that  earth  hath  fused, 
Grown  plastic  to  the  furnace  of  my  spirit 
And  —  blown  all  into  smoke  !    Where  is  seen  smoke 
There  towers  are  fallen  ;  where  my  soul  hath  breathed 
Lie  ruin'd  very  real  realities. 
Where  Beatric£  beams  beatified 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Was  every  hour  a  maiden  passing  by.  — 
But,  shall  conviction  of  a  literal  sense 
Keep  true  the  symbol ;  or  shall  men  mistake 
Earth  all  and  hours  of  iron  virileness, 
Human  heart's-love  and  worship,  for  the  words 
Of  otherworldliness  and  wanton  dreams  ? 
Shall  the  basilica  seem  faith  alone  ?  — 

Were  not  the  world  right  yet  in  wrongly  taking 
The  symbolism  of  my  work  and  song  ? 
Hath  not  my  method  served  its  own  defeat 
By  treachery  within  the  very  walls  ? 
Hath  not  my  soul  been  exiled  by  my  verse  ? 
For  I  've  but  duplicated  this  my  soul, 
Have  built  about  my  passion  a  tower  on  earth 
Not  meant  for  earth  to  stand  and  fall  on  it, 
But  for  translation  to  the  terms  of  God ; 
Have  pictured,  ay,  described  though  scarce  express'd 
The  power  of  him  who  dwelling  upon  earth 
Not  imitates  but  vitalizes  faith 
By  acts  accomplish'd.     Hath  not  mine  own  creed 
Dissever 'd  church  and  state,  awarding  earth 
To  emperor,  soul  to  the  man  of  Christ, 
But  reconciling  neither  ?    And  if  I 
52 


DANTE 

Portray  by  paradox  the  power  of  Christ 
Through  giving  over  His  basilicas 
To  anti-Christ,  shall  anti-Christ  be  saved 
By  calling  them  still  temples  ?    An  there  be 
The  mystic  sense  to  all  that  I  have  sung, 
Yet  are  the  words  the  words  of  sensuous  things ; 
And,  on  the  assumption  of  unsensuous  soul, 
Must  merit  men's  discrediting  as  writ. 
The  symbolism  must  defeat  itself. 
The  vivid  emphasis  on  things  of  earth 
Not  merely  cited  for  theodicy 
Discredits  soul  itself ;  unless  the  terms 
Taken  of  earth  shall  stultify  themselves. 
I,  Dante,  have  denied  my  birthright,  making 
Life  but  a  replica  of  visioning : 
Heaven  and  hell  erected,  excavated 
Above,  beneath  no  firmament  of  man; 
Nor  purgatory  recognized  for  earth. 
I,  Dante,  of  a  stone  and  iron  age, 
Who  knew  but  man  and  woman;  hated,  loved 
But  man  and  woman  and  this  marvelous  earth; 
Have  only  dream'd  and  told  men  of  my  dream; 
I,  Dante,  have  discredited  my  world, 
Have  lived  at  soul  mine  exile  in  my  verse 
53 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

And  left  my  life's  reality  a  doubt.  — 
I  am  the  last  of  them  that  shall  mistake 
A  portrait  of  a  dream  for  world's  real  truth. 
I  am  the  last,  who,  missing  upon  earth 
The  realm  of  Christ,  yet  strongly  feeling  earth 
Its  powers  and  passions,  hating,  loving  it 
And  moved  to  mighty  speech,  must  spoil  that  speech 
With  architecture  of  a  spire,  a  pit, 
(Beyond  the  all-purgation  of  this  life) 
Exhausting  all  of  knowledge,  yet  unknown. 
I  am  a  limitation  unto  men; 
If  in  my  strength  of  style  impassable, 
Yet  also  in  the  weakness  of  my  way 
Of  giving  earth  expression.   For  no  mode 
Were  less  convincing  of  reality, 
Were  more  the  manner  of  a  mind  at  dream 
(Dispatriated  by  mere  shift  of  the  scene 
From  speech  to  verse  though  both  are  native  tongue  ) 
Than  this  of  emblem  and  this  ordering 
Of  each  event  unto  its  symbolism. 
No  man  shall  make  a  poetry  less  real. 
So  have  I  fail'd  by  sheer  excess  of  strength, 
Pursuing  to  disruption  world  and  soul ; 
And  am  but  creature  of  my  passing  age  : 
54 


DANTE 

I,  Dante,  lost  in  thought's  duality 

And  rendering  unto  God  no  genuine  things 

Of  God  :  by  thus  discrediting  things  all.  — 

Yet  am  I  greater  than  mine  age  in  this : 
That  I  would  at  the  worst  establish  earth 
Of  power  imperial  (to  Caesar  things 
Worthy  at  least  of  Caesar)  and  lead  the  way 
By  genuine  emphasis  of  vital  facts 
To  disregard  of  otherworldly  lore, 
Of  symbolism  and  false-parallel, 
Speaking  the  plain  expression  as  I  see 
And  feel  and  move  about  and  am  of  earth  : 
The  true  Italian  tongue  though  Italy 
Be  there  Firenze,  here  another  state  !  — 
Exhaust  the  symbolism,  disregard 
The  shadowy-doubtful  necromantic  myth 
I  wove  of  Faith  and  Reason  ;  and  take  of  me 
Fair  purport,  as  I  wrote  experienced  truth. 
Thus  were  the  tale  no  duplicate  of  soul, 
But  soul  in  some  degree  thirst-satisfied 
By  utterance  of  the  matters  of  its  wrath 
As  these  affect  its  fact  and  are  its  life. 
Firenze,  ah  !   Firenze  !  how  I  love  thee 
55 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Who  am  an  exile  hated  of  thy  race-! 

Ravenna,  how  I  hate  thee  though  thou  holdest 

Body  of  mine  and,  with  that  flesh,  my  soul ! 

These  are  the  tragedies  whereof  I  walk'd 

Incarnate  poetry,  by  some  mistake 

Mask'd  in  an  oracle  and  mystery : 

These  were  my  soul-purgation  without  end  ! 

Ah,  Beatrice,  thou  I  mostly  loved 

While  mated  to  another  and  thou  dead  ! 

Thou  woman  :  thou  a  dream,  but  that  this  soul 

And  body  saw  thee  still  and  yearn 'd  at  thee 

Though  knowing  thou  wast  not !   These  are  the  things 

I  truly  spake  and  felt  and  fully  meant : 

Unwilling  exile  in  that  spirit-world 

Which  I  alone  best  knew  for  truth  of  earth. 

The  first  of  some  new  race  of  men  am  I 

Who,  Greek-like,  Roman-wise,  dwell  all  on  earth 

And  live  with  it  and  love  it  and  beget 

By  earth  high  poem-progeny  —  not  like 

Barren  scholastics  cloister'd  in  their  lore. 

The  first  of  some  new  race  who,  Greek-like  still, 

Yet  burst  beyond  the  Greek  in  that  their  soul 

Cleaves  to  no  atom-struggling  'gainst  the  fates, 

No  refuge  in  atom-indifference, 

56 


DANTE 

But  continence  with  passion-power  combined 
In  this  sublime  sense  of  concluding  earth 
(Of  rendering  unto  God  God's  things  call'd  Cesar's) 
Learn'd  of  the  symbolism.   Where  heaven  and  hell 
Have  been  or  seem'd  to  be  can  nevermore 
Be  passive  agony,  but  masterful 
Appropriation  of  all  literal  truths 
To  re-create  :  for  soul  is  master  now. 
If  little  save  the  chronicle  of  crime 
Of  Italy  accursed  I  have  spoken  ; 
Else  the  death-phantom  of  a  finite  love  ; 
Yet  is  the  chronicle  a  novel  art 
Prophetic  of  a  poetry  wherein 
That  high  philosophy  call'd  Reasoning  Faith 
Shall  sing  incorporate  with  facts  of  earth 
Not  parallel'd,  not  paradoxical, 
But  literally  universalized 
Unto  world-permeant  intelligence 
By  insight  of  soul's  self-eternity 
'Twixt  birth  and  death.    I,  Dante,  born  of  earth 
Yet  wandering  in  the  fiended  forest  of  things 
Call'd  past ;  else  through  some  void  futurity 
Of  seraph-crystalline,  stand  born  at  last 
Anew.    Hell  sinks ;  heaven  lifts.    (Italian  tongue 
57 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Preserveth  me  from  exile  in  the  verse 
Else  native  to  no  earth  !)    I  humanly 
Wake  in  Ravenna  unto  world's  worth  now.  — 
I,  Dante,  have  discern'd  a  world's  purgation. 
I,  Dante,  have  made  self-contain 'd  an  earth. 


COLUMBUS 

FROM  the  accomplished  triumph  here  am  I !  — - 

I  have  no  triumph  to  report,  my  queen; 

No  mere  achievement;  yet  a  truth  so  strange 

That  Indies  sink  to  insignificance  - 

Though  the  significance  were  Indies'  still ! 

I  have  come  through  some  tempests  of  the  soul 

More  vast  than  ocean-thunders ;  and  have  seen 

In  storm-burst  vision  of  vitality 

New-born  to  earth  but  by  the  wreck  of  all 

Which  hitherto  hath  held  us :  you,  my  queen, 

God  and  our  Empire  all  within  that  wrack 

Concluded,  victims  of  the  visioning. 

Now  have  I  come  to  register  my  truth. 

Hearken  me,  pr'ythee,  for  I  stand  here  now 

With  some  authority  for  service  done  — 

Even  though  't  were  service  Spain  may  scarce  survive! 

You  who  are  under  God  in  special  place 
Of  privileged  communion,  need  not  know 
The  fear  of  failure ;  for  your  thoughts  are  straight 
From  God.     I  have  no  privilege;  did  need 
59 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Success  to  live :  and  I  have  found  success, 
Am  proved  before  myself  and  you  and  God 
Sane  and  assured  some  insight  into  things. 
I  am  not  close  to  God ;  but  I  can  say 
With  humblest  dignity  I  may  love  close 
My  sovereign  as  God :  I  of  my  part 
Sovereign,  who  lay  new  Indies  at  your  feet. 
Though  are  there  moods  when  I  would  still  undo 
The  great  discovery,  and  be  as  one 
Not  near  his  sovereign  nor  himself  a  king. 
Hark!  for  I  fear  a  failure,  as  I  fear'd 
No  failure  from  the  winds  nor  waves  nor  spheres 
Of  meteor-influence.    And  'tis  yours,  my  queen, 
This  doom ;  not  as  you  may  be  under  God 
My  sovereign;  nor  yet  as  I,  being  man  ' 
Yet  sovereign  in  myself,  so  make  you  God 
To  this  my  being;  but  as  in  yourself 
You  are  as  I  no  sovereign ;  under  God 
A  subject,  so  in  fear  of  failure  too, 
Needing  success  to  live.  —  Nay,  hearken  me ! 
The  seas  have  heard  me,  and  I  speak  their  voice !  — 
Here  are  these  Indies  newly  at  your  feet 
Laid  for  the  glory  of  your  faith  and  mine. 
They  shall  be  vast  and  great;  and  on  their  wealth 
60 


COLUMBUS 

Spain's  resource  be  upbuilded  many  years. 
Yet  have  I  breathed  their  breath ;  and  feel  their  life 
A  new  thing  and  a  menace  to  old  faith. 
There,  God  is  otherwise  than  is  our  God ; 
There  (by  the  new  insight  which  I  have  gain'd 
Of  world  and  system  —  though  I  want  the  speech 
Of  some  ensuing  age  to  give  these  truths 
Words  and  right  meaning,  and  must  founder  so 
By  paradox!)  there  must  a  sovereign 
Be  otherwise  than  is  my  sovereign ; 
Myself  be  otherwise  than  here  I  stand : 
More  worldship  be  to  God  where  worlds  are  fresh 
And  full  of  untold  interests  and  faiths 
Which  mean  no  mere  unvital  imagery 
Of  truth,  imply  no  otherworldliness, 
But  are  some  Godship  in  their  life's  estate, 
More  worldship;  though  less  frail  humanity! 
More  humanhood  be  to  the  sovereign, 
More  sovereignty  to  the  meanest  churl 
(And  only  so  some  Godhood  to  them  both), 
Where  opportunity  to  be  one's  law, 
One's  church  and  state  and  justice  all  in  one 
Springs  of  the  forest  and  the  novelty 
Which  shakes  establish'd  custom,  buffets  forms 
61 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Of  prejudged  failure  else  ordain 'd  success 
(Of  old-world  slavishness)  with  salt-sea  foam. 
(Had  I  the  speech  of  some  ensuing  age!)  — 

Nay,  'twere  no  treason.    Yet  myself  have  been 
Convicted  of  a  grievous  blasphemy 
Who  sought  a  new  Spain  under  God  who  gives 
No  new  for  old  save  with  the  death  of  old. 
Yea,  it  is  new,  but  it  shall  not  be  Spain, 
Its  sovereign  no  queen  of  old  Castile 
More  than  its  God  is  God  Granada-wise  ! 
I  am  an  old  man,  yea  ;  but  I  have  seen, 
Am  made  anew  ;  and  feel  a  sovereign-like 
God-comprehension  in  my  veins  that  mocks 
(Save  a  new  faith  and  hence  a  new  respect 
Self-lawfully  be  overt  to  new  speech) 
The  old  unreasoning  obedience 
(As  ocean-tempests  mock  obedience) 
To  faith-prerogative.  —  You  tremble,  queen  ! 
Strike  if  you  will !  Perchance  I  may  return 
From  yon  west  hemisphere  one  day  in  chains 
To  expiate  what  I  but  now  have  said  ?  — 
Nay,  but  I  fear  not.     For,  as  under  God 
Are  you  my  sovereign  even  in  this  place 
62 


COLUMBUS 

So  Spain  is  under  both  ;  but  not  New  Spain  : 

More  than  am  I  no  sovereign  of  myself 

In  those  far  Indies  whither  I  once  more 

Depart  (by  leave)  to  learn  new  God,  new  faith, 

And  a  new  nation  builded  in  the  death 

Of  this  ;  of  you,  my  sovereign  ;  of  your  God  ! 

And  with  the  old  I  fall  and  die  away 

Doubtless ;  but  must  project  my  soul  upon 

All  destinies  as  you  shall  never  do. 

Here  may  the  monks  a  thousand  years  to  come 

Wail  masses  for  your  soul ;  there  shall  a  growth 

Of  unborn  peoples  daily  at  their  heart 

Learn  me,  my  meaning  in  the  speech  my  speech 

Would  mean.  —  Our  wealth  shall  flourish  and  be  great 

By  reason  of  these  Indies  for  a  space. 

But  now  the  faith,  the  Empire,  falls  away 

Even  into  nothingness  ;  and  we  with  it. 

Yet  have  I  seen  and  sought  to  tell  to  you 

The  insight  you  may  ask  in  turn  your  God  : 

Ask  God  Who  told  me  but  gave  scarce  the  speech 

Of  some  ensuing  age  that  you  might  share 

The  vision  :  none  less  true,  filling  my  soul 

With  meaning.  — 

I  of  the  doom'd  ship  have  stood 
63 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

All  darkling  :  suddenly  when  the  whole  night 
Opens  ;  and  there  is  cloud-wrack  and  the  wrath 
Of  myriad  stricken  waves  ;  and  then  the  black 
Is  verberant  through  all  the  blinded  void  ! 


SAVONAROLA 

FIRENZE  I  have  served  my  seven  years 

And  now  am  come  to  suffer  for  her  sake 

As  men  have  died  before  me  :  martyrs,  saints  — 

And  now.  myself,  mere  Prior  among  priests, 

Girolamo.   Yea,  't  is  strange  that  I  have  come 

Unto  such  noble  company.     But  God 

Was  ever  gracious,  ever  spake  to  me. 

When  was  He  otherwise  to  any  man 
If  men  but  would  take  heed  ?    My  only  claim 
To  merit  in  the  sight  of  God  or  man 
Were  heeding  then  the  message.   Did  I  heed  it  ? 
The  query  were  not  of  my  meed  as  man 
Merely  ;  of  that  I  were  indifferent ; 
Could  take  no  heed  for  saving  my  mere  soul, 
Nor  now,  when  face  to  face  with  death,  accede 
To  private  casuistry,  were  my  worth 
Alone  involved  in  my  life's  estimate. 
But  I  have  been  that  leader  of  the  blind, 
God's  humble  vicar  with  the  souls  of  men 
At  stake  on  mine.     For  I  have  had  my  day 
Of  power  in  plenitude  in  name  of  Christ, 
65 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Of  vicarage  to  wide  effect  on  earth, 

Though  fallen  so  low  to-day  in  earth's  own  sight. 

God's  wisdom  be  the  fall ;  let  it  not  shame 

The  power  that  hath  been  —  but  because  the  sign 

I  hoped  from  heaven  hath  come  not  nor  shall  come  ! 

Let  the  apostleship  stand  firm  and  fall  not 

With  this  mere  faltering  of  the  flesh  of  me 

Before  the  drawn  cord  and  the  searching  flame. 

I  will  examine  by  full  confessional 

Mine  own  career  now  closed  ;  and  let  it  stand 

Fair  yet  or  foul  for  men  to  know  me  by. 

There  hath  been  other  record,  false  I  know, 

Inscribed  and  publish'd  of  the  inquisitors. 

Let  this  my  silent  searching  of  myself 

By  God's  grace  permeate  the  minds  of  men 

Mysteriously  to  let  them  learn  the  truth 

Of  mine  example  set  —  as  I  shall  learn  it. 

All  sums  itself  in  one  :  that  I  denied 
Power  of  any  potency  of  earth 
(Putting  my  trust  in  God,  not  Prankish  princes  !) 
To  gainsay  God  ;  making  my  faith  the  test 
Of  God  or  anti-God  in  earth's  affairs. 
May  be  't  were  that  I  ought  not  even  conceive 
66 


SAVONAROLA 

Of  anti-God  establish'd  in  the  earth  : 
So  be  it.    But  there  be  those  who  under  God 
Assume  the  power  of  God  to  plunder  men. 
And  such  should  be  resisted  would  we  serve 
God  wholly  and  directly  as  we  may. 
Nor,  for  I  now  confess  it,  spake  I  well 
When  claiming  prophecy,  the  gift  in  me 
By  vision  of  the  things  unseen  of  men 
To  speak  for  God  as  other  than  mere  man  : 
Foretelling  future  things  by  oracle 
As  pagans  use.   For  such  a  prophesying, 
Such  speaking  for  our  Lord,  were  beyond  speech 
Presumption  on  my  part  and  on  God's  part 
A  supererogation.   Speaks  He  not 
Through  every  tongue  of  earth  if  men  would  heed  ? 
So  it  is  true  that  to  this  least  extent 
I  solemnly  recant :  I  spake  as  one 
Men  call  inspired  indeed,  but  not  in  kind 
A  prophet  different  from  other  men 
In  all  of  whom  faith  like  to  mine  might  fill 
The  void  with  some  afflatus.    Reasoning  fair 
With  knowledge  of  the  times,  with  faith  in  right 
Conclusive  in  me  of  the  truth  of  things, 
I  could  forefeel  and  did  foretell  indeed 
67 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Much  chastisement  and  mine  own  doom  at  last 
As  now  is  come  upon  me  —  Gladius 
Domini  super  t  err  am.   The  worst  wretch 
If  suddenly  possessed  by  gift  of  God 
With  faith  in  right  might  prophesy  as  well. 
That  were  the  only  gift,  the  faith  in  right. 
And  only  so  have  I  been  prophet  here. 
So  be  it.    I  man  to  man  resisted  firm 
The  oppression  of  the  powers  that  claim 'd  from  God 
Power  superior  to  my  people's  power 
Whereof  from  God  I  was  the  guardian. 
The  pettier  tyranny,  Lorenzo's  rule, 
Foul  Piero's  pretense,  I  spurn'd  to  oppose 
Directly  nor  countervail  by  counterplot, 
Save  as  I  served  Firenze  by  my  voice 
And  persevered  for  peace  if  honorable ; 
But  being  irreconcilable  to  death 
I  but  did  well :  the  Medici  deserved  not. 
But  now  hath  been  the  Borgia,  he  who  claims 
The  Keys  of  Peter.    Did  I  well  with  him  ? 
He  conquers  this  my  flesh  :  by  flesh  I  fight  not — 
T  is  spirit  that  is  protagonist.   Yea,  shall 
He  conquer  then  my  soul  who  no  soul  hath  ? 
I  stake  upon  the  proof  of  simony 
68 


SAVONAROLA 

Mine  absolute  refusal  to  allow 

Pope  Alexander  to  be  proven  Pope. 

Say  not  the  scholiasts  all,  that  place  obtain'd 

By  fraud  endoweth  with  no  authority  ? 

Between  this  Alexander  and  myself 

There  is  no  worthy  combat.    He  is  nought. 

He  burns  my  body ;  but  him  my  soul  ignores. 

What  then  the  doubt,  if  there  hath  been  no  Pope 
With  whom  dispute  might  lie  ?    As  man  to  man 
He  was  beneath  contempt,  should  fill  not  now 
One  moment  of  the  life  remaining  to  me 
Which  should  be  wholly  dedicate  to  God. 
But  there  is  world  without  these  prison-walls, 
Firenze  still,  though  hostile,  at  my  feet, 
Example  set  by  me  unto  all  people, 
And  misconception  of  the  speech  of  me 
And  false  report !   And  't  is  to  serve  God  still 
If  I  bewray  mine  hours  yet  left  of  earth 
To  silence  question,  free  from  my  career 
If  possible  without  recant  from  truth 
The  imputation  of  revolt  imbued 
Schismatic,  scandalous  within  God's  church. 
'T  were  shame  of  this  that  made  me  oft-time  yield 
69 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Where  right  was  mine  against  authority 
(As  world  would  misconceive  !),  where  I  by  yielding 
Endanger 'd  self,  weaken 'd  my  flock's  support. 
And  it  is  now  this  rumor  of  schismatism 
Moving  and  waxing  when  I  am  no  more  — 
'Twere  this  I  truly  fear,  deeply  regret 
In  mine  attempt  now  closed  to  purge  God's  church 
Of  rottenness.   The  rottenness  alone 
Might  never  cleave  asunder  what  God  meant 
For  one  Church  universal.   Had  I  lived 
Longer,  to  urge  the  Council  and  conduct 
Myself  the  Cause  of  Christ  against  those  crimes 
Call'd  Cardinals  and  Popes,  then  had  there  been 
No  danger  of  a  schism  from  that  I  wrought. 
Their  creed  is  my  creed,  could  they  but  repent.  — 
But  now  'tis  otherwise.   The  time  was  short ; 
And  I  have  left  the  purging  unperform'd 
And  reconciliation  unattain'd. 
It  were  to  any  outward  view  a  war 
'Twixt  me  and  Rome,  this  Prior  and  the  church : 
A  fatal  heresy  !  —  I  seem  to  see 
In  some  outlying  land  where  Emperor 
Is  ever  jealous  of  the  pride  of  Rome, 
Where  fervor  of  the  rich,  symbolic  creed 
70 


SAVONAROLA 

Is  chill'd  by  frost  of  some  hard  northern  clime, 
(Ages  from  now  may  be,  yet  child  of  this  age  !) 
A  stout  schismatic  rise  and  cry :  '  From  him, 
'  Girolamo  of  Ferrara,  him  who  bade 
'  The  Pope  go  burn  in  hell  his  thousand  years, 
'  From  him,  this  martyr'd  Prior  of  San  Marco, 
1  Came  the  first  blow  of  the  mallet  on  the  wedge 
'  Which  now  I  wield  to  thrust  the  structure  down 
1  Divided  from  itself.   Savonarola 

*  Who  first  put  inward  grace  'fore  outward  chrism, 
'  The  first  schismatic,  first  protesting  priest : 

*  To  him  be  honor  and  glory  for  his  crime  !  ' 

So  shouts  the  Teuton.   And  the  accursed  crime, 
The  desperate  revolt  from  God's  true  church, 
Spreads  frenzied  down  the  ages ;  and  the  world 
Is  rift  in  twain ;  and  God  is  no  more  known 
In  mystic  union  of  His  Church  on  earth 
The  one  and  universal.   There  shall  be 
Rivers  of  fire  and  burnings,  yea,  of  blood  ; 
Wars,  devastations ;  and  my  name  be  claim'd 
For  anti-Christ's  great  patron  by  my  fault 
Of  struggling  now  against  this  Borgia  !  — 
Lord,  if  this  vision  be  vouchsafed  by  Thee, 
Forgive  the  error  of  my  fight  for  Thee  ! 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Accept  the  penitence  for  crime  unguess'd 

But  in  Thine  own  inscrutable  wisdom  proven 

Mine  irremediable  shame  and  sin  !  — 

No  vision  need  it  be,  then,  Lord  !  if  Thou 

Still  to  the  last  vouchsafest  me  no  sign  ? 

Only  mine  insight  into  mine  own  deed 

Its  necessary  consequence  of  shame 

Despite  my  soul's  intention  —  insight  aided 

By  rack'd  nerve,  twisted  sinew  :  my  sight  at  last 

As  now  longtime  of  many !   Here  I  kneel 

Foregone,  bewray'd  indeed  :  my  contumacy 

Proven  'gainst  the  unity  of  men's  belief 

In  Thy  Church  universal !   To  have  set 

Mere  private  judgment,  personal  unity 

Of  reasoning  faith  above  Thy  best  bequest, 

Thine  instituted  Body  !   Of  Thy  Spirit 

The  mind  knows  nothing,  save  by  outward  works 

As  Thou,  Thy  Church,  ordainest !    'T  is  thus  we 

heed 

By  heeding  them  who  hearken'd  long  ago 
When  Thou  wast  upon  earth  —  authority 
Closing  the  question  of  power !  —  Whom  men  call 
Pope,  against  him  can  be  no  just  recourse  ? 
Lo  !  I  have  hitherto  aloud  denied 
72 


SAVONAROLA 

The  excommunication.   Before  men 
Have  I  been  cogent  in  my  reasoning 
Contra  authority ;  whilst  nought  obtains 
Of  logic  nor  of  reason  to  avail 
Against  the  scandal  I  have  caused  thereby. 
Even  this  self-searching,  ay,  were  scandalous, 
Unwarranted  and  proving  nought  of  truth, 
Knelt  I  not  thus  in  Thy  confessional ! 

Lo  !  when  the  time  for  absolution  comes 

In  the  last  hour  before  the  people  there, 

That  absolution  I  will  meekly  take 

Publicly  to  my  spirit,  that  the  church 

(Perhaps  therethrough  my  teaching  may  be  true?) 

Shall  triumph  through  me  though  my  teaching  fail. 

I  must  not  perish  excommunicate  ! 


73 


MICHELANGELO 

THESE  are  my  children :  these,  the  Night  and  Day. 
For  I  have  wrought  them  with  my  body's  power  — 
Persons  more  of  my  procreation  than 
Stuff  of  an  artistry  of  thought  and  soul.  — 
'T  were  not  that  slowly  and  with  patient  pain 
Under  mine  hand  I  made  them  hour  by  hour 
These  creatures  moulded  of  the  graven  rock. 
The  slow  gradation  toward  maturity 
Were  in  thus  much  no  thwarting  to  mine  art 
But  rather  proof  of  reason  in  the  whole, 
Of  sight  before  and  after.    But  being  made, 
Grown  to  the  semblance  of  heroic  truths 
And  left  (as  I  have  left  them  these  few  years 
Unchanged)  well-nigh  eternal  where  they  lie, 
They  still  are  stone,  an  occupance  of  place 
In  reproduction  of  my  form  humane 
As  I  am  body  moulded  to  my  height 
And  breadth  within  this  frame  of  universe. 
And  therefore  are  they  creatures  of  my  body, 
Children  in  likeness  of  my  fatherhood, 
Unlike  the  sexless  self -completed  soul 
That,  needing  nothing  to  perpetuate 
74 


MICHELANGELO 

Its  self-eternity,  of  largess  makes 
World  of  itself,  createth  as  a  God. 
Somewhat  there  was  within  me  as  I  wrought 
That  seem'd  not  procreative,  seem'd  self- whole. 
Somewhat  there  bides  as  then  abode  in  me 
Of  self-intention  in  mine  offspring  here  ; 
Not  vulgar  imitation  of  man's  frame. 
Men  will  no  doubt  detect  some  spirit  in  them. 
Yet  is  that  somewhat  spoilt,  as  I  conceive, 
By  grossness  of  the  literal  contour  still 
Suggesting  need  that  for  the  artist-act 
Were  prototype  in  earth  of  other-sex 
My  mate  ;  perversion  of  perpetuance 
From  proper  flesh  and  blood  to  senseless  stone, 
The  still-born  of  an  heart  hermaphrodite 
Wedded  to  world  and  moulding  of  its  marl. 
Here  before  all  men  lieth  mine  heart's  disgrace, 
Who,  yearning  with  divine  creatorship 
Internal  to  mine  absolute  insight 
Of  spiritual  beauty  (as  God  made  me  so 
Beautiful  in  His  sight),  have  sullied  self 
By  part-performance  false  of  natural  law 
In  imitation  of  the  God  Who  made 
(Himself,  above  the  law  He  made  for  man, 
75 


OF  TH£ 

/NIVERSITY 

POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Sexlessly  procreative,  self-supreme  !), 

Above  His  law  of  nature  mating  two, 

Flesh  out  of  fiat  as  I  made  but  stone. 

Man  cannot  make  a  man  of  flesh  and  blood, 

The  image  of  himself  in  stuff  of  earth, 

Save  by  the  woman-mystery.   My  way 

Had  better  been  to  hew  vacuity, 

Essay  no  semblance  from  the  block  incised 

Which  still  for  all  my  labor  showeth  nought 

Of  the  true  man  that  breathes  and  moves  and  knows. 

I  had  been  better  wedded  to  some  wench  ; 

Well-quit  of  carving  whilst  my  children  grew 

And  flourish'd  and  were  I,  body  and  soul, 

By  mystery  perpetuate  in  the  world. 

Yet  have  I  loved  not,  scarcely  until  now 
Felt  want  of  woman  for  the  weal  of  me. 
My  works  have  issued  from  the  unsex'd  stone 
(Or  man  or  woman)  mere  humanity, 
Not  fatherhood  nor  mother,  male  nor  wife 
If  individual  beyond  old  types 
In  all  else,  Titans  merely,  sexless  gods. 
Haply  the  procreation  by  these  blocks 
Allay'd  the  natural  longing  of  the  male 
76 


MICHELANGELO 

For  femininity  and  served  the  need 
Of  offspring  all  the  while  I  dream'd  them  art. 
Haply  my  grim  mismarr'd  envisagement 
Found  favor  of  the  marble  I  but  woo'd 
As  any  lover  with  assured  success  — 
Though  still  I  fancied  soul,  as  man  hath  soul 
(The  power  that  is  beyond  the  body's  power), 
Created  in  me  out  of  day  and  night 
These  and  the  sundry  monstrance  of  my  craft. 
Me  much  mistaken  !    For  at  last  I  love 
And  find  no  satisfaction  in  these  stones 
Which,  being  for  flesh  a  senseless  substitute 
Whilst  still  no  means  to  mount  beyond  the  flesh, 
Speak  nothing  of  the  passion  proven  in  me 
As  I  am  artist  to  create.,  beyond 
Material  of  the  world  I  find  me  in, 
Expression  of  the  wondrous  mastery 
That  fills  me :  to  create  as  I  am  God 
For  mine  own  truth  and  love's  own  truth  alone 
Not  imitation  but  perfection  of 
The  utterance  that  wells  within  me  now. 
For  thus  should  I  be  (as  I  now  am  man 
To  woman,  yearning  —  even  whilst  to  woo 
Intend  I  never !  —  to  attain  by  her 
77 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Body's  perpetuation,  yea,  and  soul's 
As  bodily  bequeathed),  be  also  source 
Of  self -divine  formation  ;  yea,  my  thought 
And  hers  united  to  new  heaven,  new  earth. 

The  silence  that  is  deathly  in  these  stones, 
Fatal  and  mocking  to  my  fatherhood, 
Were  solemn-splendid  in  the  sweet-tongued  song 
I  send  her,  first  of  many  that  shall  be  : 
Best  of  the  hundred  hitherto  to  art 
And  man  inscribed,  but  not  to  any  soul ! 
Within  the  noble  language  as  she  reads 
Shall  the  new  world  arise  that 's  ours  alone, 
All  mine,  all  hers,  to  all  eternity ; 
No  self-defeat  in  that  the  voice  breathes  not, 
Moves  not,  lives  not ;  for  breath  nor  motion,  life 
Were  wanted  any  in  the  brain  that  reads 
And  reading  re-creates.     No  body  of  me 
Is  falsely  fashion'd  in  the  marks  I  make 
Of  plume  upon  the  parchment  superscribed  : 
Nought  but  some  symbol  of  the  thought  of  sound  ; 
A  thought  itself  an  art  beyond  all  sign. 
The  world  of  flesh  and  blood,  as  other  men 
May  sense  it,  leaves  me  as  the  mists  of  Rome 
78 


MICHELANGELO 

Burn  from  the  Tiber,  or  the  hills  above 

Firenze  are  released  out  of  a  cloud, 

And  all  in  gleam  of  eye  is  marvel-clear, 

Impenetrative  of  the  new-won  sight 

This  love  hath  lent  me  as  the  sun  on  high. 

Only,  it  is  my  soul  that,  learning  hers, 

Is  sun  in  heaven  as  yet  the  mists  beneath  ; 

Is  song  in  silence,  speech  within  my  pen 

Unheard  but  soaring  as  the  morning  soars. 

For  I  have  come  to  love  ;  and  all  my  need 

Of  procreation  through  this  flesh  of  space  - 

Focus'd,  enshrined  within  her  woman-heart 

Where  it  is  holy  as  the  snow  is  white 

That  lieth  beyond  Milano  (being  of  us  both 

In  consonance  with  law  and  hence  alive, 

Breathing  and  moving  and  inform'd  of  soul)  — 

Sheds  from  the  soul  that  mounteth  more  than  man 

And  leaves  a  godhead  in  my  song  to  her. 

It  is  the  art  that  struggled  to  be  stone 

And  could  not,  but  became  monstrosity. 

It  is  the  art  that,  as  it  alway  fail'd, 

Darkened  my  brow,  furrow'd  my  temples  'thwart 

With  hard  perplexity,  perturbing  all 

To  vast  unrest  that  I  did  labor  on. 

79 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

It  is  the  art  too  late  to  find  relea 
Wholly,  nor  smooth  the  misery  from  my  mask 
Wherewith  I  clothe  my  face  before  the  eyes 
Of  all  men  and  all  women  else  than  her. 
Such  as  I  am,  I  am,  made  of  mine  own 
Too  long  sojourning  here  about  the  world 
A  laborer  to  fashion  flesh  and  blood 
As  none  but  God  by  His  best  mystery 
Of  woman-love  unto  the  love  of  man 
May  fashion  it  in  image  of  Himself. 
I  unto  her  may  be  some  poet  yet 
Of  terrible  tenderness,  of  tragic  peace 
By  liberation  in  and  through  her  heart 
From  any  need  to  prison  under  earth 
The  meaning  that  is  beauty  as  I  speak  it 
Well-order'd  to  the  riming  of  my  soul. 
But  unto  men  must  I  still  play  my  part 
So  long  ago  assumed  ;  never  to  end 
Till  lean  senility  absorb  all  strength  ; 
And  art  with  power  to  pound  or  patch  a  clay 
Die  as  I  die,  the  struggler,  sculptor  still.  — 
Their  pigment,  nay  design,  wherewith  of  late 
I  sop  the  Cerberus  (I  've  calPd  it  base 
And  purpose  of  all  art !)  —  't  were  slight  to  help 
80 


MICHELANGELO 

Where  by  device  of  trick  illusively 

Is  symbol'd  sordid  substance,  substance  alway. 

The  manual  dexterity  I  use 

Were  still  the  undertaking  ;  still  the  form 

Is  space-felt,  cynically  aping  earth 

Indeed  (in  so  far  as  insulting  stone 

With  mockery  of  chiaroscuro  and 

The  subtile  perspective,  so  far  success !) 

Yet  warrantable  but  by  fact  of  stone 

Not  imitative,  even,  of  true  soul 

Save  through  the  obscuring  body :  and  thus  con- 

demn'd, 

The  limning  with  the  carving.  —  I  for  her 
Am  maker.    For  the  rest  I  am  but  man. 

These  are  my  children;  still-born,  struggling  things 
Of  every  gaze  that  chance  to  glance  them  by  : 
Insensates  of  the  insensate ;  Day  or  Night ; 
Dawn  yet  or  David  ;  Twilight  or  the  God 
Of  Wine  ;  Madonna  with  the  Child,  the  Dead  ; 
Or  Moses  half-hewn  still  within  my  mind. 
These  are  my  children.    But  mine  art  is  song 
Sentient  in  love  of  her :  for  her,  for  me  : 
But  not  for  any  other  of  them  all. 
81 


MILTON 

NOW  am  I  left  in  mine  old  age  with  God 
Alone.  Blind,  desolate,  I  still  have  God. 
Princes  and  potentates  they  are  not  God. 

How  have  I  seen  the  great  days  of  the  earth 
Like  froth  devour'd  ;  and  all  our  hopes  of  strength 
Made  to  a  mock  and  scorn  !   But  still  is  God. 
How  are  the  evil  raging ;  and  the  wrong 
Wholly  triumphant  through  the  length  and  breadth 
Of  this  lost  England  !   Yea,  but  still  is  God. 
Yet,  shall  the  commonweal  that  men  have  lost 
Be  commonweal  regain'd  ?    In  God's  good  time 
Doubtless.   But  here  I  sit  at  Gizeh  shorn 
And  blind,  a  mockery.   I  sit;  and  God. 
Even  hath  my  sacrifice  of  sight  brought  nought 
Save  bitterness  :  and  commune  close  with  God. 
Yea,  in  the  loss  of  every  outward  thing 
Of  sight  and  fortune,  opportunity 
To  stir  foot  in  God's  service ;  still  I  owe 
Rich  compensation,  empyrean  hope 
Of  him  who  stands  and  waits  :  this  life  in  God. 
Scarce  might  I  mean  with  any  honest  heart 
82 


MILTON 

(Though  grief  would  urge  it)  that  in  just  such  ruin 

Alone  gain  I  the  vision  and  the  voice 

To  sing  of  Satan,  Eve's  and  Adam's  fall 

Through  Satan,  and  the  splendor  of  God's  hosts. 

These  seem  but  figure  of  the  truth  I  feel 

Celestial,  overpowering,  immense. 

Scarce  might  I  mean  (though  here  I  shrink  at  least 

From  sacrilege  and  stark  unreverence) 

How  Christ  I  sing  and  man's  redemption  through 

Him, 

The  second  Adam  —  't  were  but  figure  still 
Of  this  best  grace,  this  unity  with  God. 
Nor  might  I  mean  that  I  in  durance  sitting 
Sing  the  blind  Samson,  earth's  most  tragic  man 
Of  men  —  save  Samson  were  my  very  soul 
Named  but  anew  ;  and  thus  were  God  within  him 
The  true  song's  spirit.   These  I  mean  not ;  yet 
Even  as  those  orbed  constellations  and 
Sun's  fiery  magnificence  were  fountain 
Of  mine  imaginings  of  Satan's  wars 
When  sight  was  to  these  eyes,  so  Satan's  hosts 
And  God  triumphant  (truths  of  inward  eye) 
Seem  but  suggestion  of  some  truth  to-come 
Beyond  immediate  vision,  yet  the  more 
83 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

My  faith  and  hope,  my  very  love  of  God.  — 
Let  not  the  spirit  flag  because  of  age  ! 

Somewhat  it  were,  to  search  in  my  past  faith 

For  signs  of  this  awakening  ;  and  thus 

Foreshadow  something  of  articulate  truth 

Reserved  for  later  ages  and  a  man 

I  know  not :  trace  some  growth,  development 

Of  here  and  there  some  partial  prophecy, 

Some  mutilated  vision  which  in  sum 

Shall  mean  as  I  by  miracle  would  mean. 

Thus,  to  the  task !  —  I  cannot  well  recall 

Even  in  mine  adolescence  such  weak  years 

As  were  not,  half-unconsciously,  inform'd 

Of  independent  judgment  in  affairs. 

And  this  I  heed  well,  that,  with  riper  days 

And  conscienced  full  maturity,  I  took 

Firm  attitude  of  non-conformity 

In  spiritual  professions.     If  I  vow'd 

No  vows  (when  learning  and  the  studious  garb 

Meant  clergy ;  and  the  laity,  ignorance 

And  wassail),  'twas  that  something  in  me  stirr'd 

Unto  revolt;  at  best,  unto  a  power 

To  deal  direct  with  God  and  God  with  me, 


MILTON 

Brooking  no  intercession  from  a  church. 

Such  then  the  key-note,  non-conformity 

And  right  of  private  judgment  with  direct 

Appeal  to  God  in  Scripture  and  in  faith. 

Confirm'd  in  such  view,  I  at  first  withdrew 

For  travel,  study,  teaching;  when  the  times 

In  public  life  of  independent  thought 

Demanded  nought,  afforded  no  foothold 

Unto  the  root-and-branch  reformer.    Then 

At  the  true  call  and  in  the  desperate  need 

I  labor'd  earnestly  and  honorably 

Preserving  independence,  unenslaved 

To  any  project  or  of  friends  or  foes : 

That  England  might  be  England.  When  the  times 

Fell;  and  I  blind  and  desolate  am  left 

Alone  with  God ;  mine  independence  still 

Is  mine,  my  private  judgment  unimpeach'd 

And  unimpair'd.     But  markedly  the  appeal 

To  God  in  Scripture  or  to  God  in  faith 

Is  of  a  novel  nature.     Let  me  pause. 

For  everything  that  I  have  deem'd  of  God 
His  handiwork  hath  fail'd  me.     Mine  whole  world 
Hath  sunken  and  is  wrack.  — Did  I  mistake 
85 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

God's  will  and  purpose  ?     Did  I  contradict 
The  express  command  and  set  my  strength  against 
Omnipotence  ?    Was  God  the  God  of  kings 
And  tyrants  ?    Nay,  for  kings  and  tyrants  deem 
Earth  theirs,  not  God's ;  and  therefore  God's  good  care 
For  their  good  solely,  and  themselves  in  the  world 
God's  vicars,  hence  in  all  equivalence 
God  upon  earth.    God  cannot  work  for  these. 
Yet  have  I  thus  been  guilty  as  I  blame 
These  tyrants ;  I  have  held  God  partisan 
For  this  or  the  other  good  within  my  soul 
Or  in  the  world ;  though  all  things  else  of  the  world 
(And  in  my  soul)  no  care  of  Providence. 
Thus  have  I  made  these  few  things  of  my  world 
Tyrant  of  all  else;  and  my  soul-desires 
God  upon  earth.    God  cannot  work  for  these. 
Yea,  I,  who  brook  no  intercession,  fain 
Had  interceded  even  as  Church  and  Pope. 
I,  who  have  writ  of  Satan's  tragedy 
And  heroism,  had  deem'd  God's  adversary 
No  care  of  God  and  so  no  truth  of  Him ; 
Though  God  were  God  but  in  the  conquering, 
And  Satan  very  godly,  who  would  brook 
No  intercession,  but  demanded  right 
86 


MILTON 

To  deal  direct  with  God  and  God  with  him. 
Ay,  Christ  were  Christly  not  in  interceding 
Where  intercession  were  a  blasphemy, 
But  by  subduing  all  things  of  His  soul 
And  world  to  godliness  and  Providence; 
And  thereby  making  whole  His  universe. 
Samson  were  tragic,  and  God's  spirit  in  him, 
Scarce  by  the  warfare  (less  by  carnal  love!) 
But  by  the  cataclysm,  involving  all 
Alike,  of  God's  wrath  on  the  just  or  unjust; 
Self,  Israel's  servant,  even  as  Dagon's  hosts! 

Thus  the  new  faith  of  mine  unflagging  spirit 
In  age  as  in  mine  earliest  youth  is  still 
A  self-dependent  and  unswerving  zeal 
To  deal  direct  with  God,  brooking  no  cant 
Of  customary  creeds  to  intercede. 
Yet  the  new  independence  craves  some  fresh 
Fashion  of  God,  Who,  equally  all  things 
Of  right  and  wrong  as  I  must  see  them,  yet 
Fosters  the  final  truth  in  heaven's  own  fall. 
I  cannot  reach  the  reason  why  some  things 
Of  God  are  right  and  why  some  earth-things  else 
Are  wrong,  yet  equally  of  God  the  same. 
87 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Old  faith  falls  from  me  as  my  sight  hath  fallen, 

Leaving  me  outer  darkness,  the  dismay 

Indeed  of  one  who  sits  at  Gizeh  shorn 

And  sightless  ;  but  within,  a  truth  of  God 

New  :  how  no  evilest  tyrant  of  them  all 

But  God  is  with  them  working  still  for  truth  ; 

And  how  I,  wielding  on  the  just  and  unjust 

Alike  the  scourge  and  the  sustainment  too 

Of  man's  great  epic  of  the  primal  sin 

And  final  godliness,  the  hellish  power 

Of  Satan  and  the  healing  power  of  Christ, 

Am  left  in  mine  old  age  blind,  desolate 

Indeed  ;  alone  by  knowing  but  all  in  God, 

God  but  in  all ;  my  right,  their  wrong :  but  God  ! 

And  thus  is  God  through  me,  as  God  through  them 
Fill'd  of  an  universal  hold  of  earth, 
Though  the  wrong  triumph.   Thus  my  aged  soul 
Hath  faith  and  dealeth  still  direct  with  God. 


LEIBNIZ 

WHAT  uplift  of  the  spirit  in  these  stars  ! 
How,  in  the  pale  dawn  waxing  yonder  wide 
And  wider  with  each  heart- beat  of  this  breeze, 
Seems  each  to  feed  on  holier  flame,  seems  star 
Or  fiery  influence  scarce  to  melt  away 
As  once  men  dream'd,  but  to  wax  each  in  place ; 
Remaining  each  a  star  yet  each  the  more 
Achieving  sunship  by  the  sphere's  increase 
Of  light !    I  lean  from  this  stuff 'd  chamber  forth  ; 
Some  span,  may  be,  project  my  brow  beyond 
This  eastward  casement ;  and  receive  the  dawn 
And  all  dawn's  wonderful  significance 
Into  my  breath  and  being  (soul  and  all, 
Fatigued  with  toil  of  mathematic  task 
The  night-long  !)  ;  soul  and  all  receive  of  this 
Heart-beating,  breathing  movement  of  the  wind  ; 
And  am  resuscitate  ;  as  one  arisen 
Out  of  some  sepulchre  I  sense  the  truth 
In  new  strength  ;  am  of  insight  into  God 
More  vital  than  my  calculus  :  am  dawn 
And  sunship  of  these  stars  !    Let  there  be  light 
Even  in  my  laboring  brain  to  clear  at  last 
89 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

The  calculus,  the  monad-chaos  from 

All  need  of  preassumption,  overlord 

Or  arbitrary  dawn  of  a  sole  sun  ! 

Let  the  new  day  be  stars' :  sun,  but  a  star 

Self-like  more  largely  luminous  ;  yet  stars, 

Each  still  a  sun.   Let  the  new  problem  be 

Development  inherent  to  each  least 

Of  minimalities.    Let  God  be  soul, 

Mine  and  each  monad's  equally ;  no  lord 

Unmonadlike  ex  machina,  beyond 

The  mutual  scheme  emptily  superposed.  — 

How  strangely  rational !   Behind  me  heap'd 

Lie  year  on  year  of  labors,  leading  but 

To  subterfuge  :  to  some  absorptive  dawn 

Defiguring  these  stars,  to  some  false-stars 

Figments  of  fire  on  sun's  fix'd  palimpsest; 

Not  sunlike  systems  each  a  dawn,  not  sun 

Some  very  star  but  by  earth  nearlier  view'd. 

Now  these  things  melt  away ;  nay,  wax  and  burst 

Transfigured  each  to  splendor  of  this  sense 

Of  self-conclusiveness  !   What  uplift  of 

The  spirit  in  this  waxing  of  the  stars  ! 

Might  I  devise  this  new-won  spirit-truth 
90 


LEIBNIZ 

In  terms  at  last  of  any  calculus  ? 

How,  within  bounds  of  mathematic  need 

For  static  value,  indicate  for  each 

Minutest  element  a  value  earn'd 

Of  absolute  position,  each  in  self 

The  very  problem's  full  infinity  ? 

The  problem's  statement  were  the  problem 

solved ! 

Yea,  every  part  were  function  of  all  parts 
Itself  whole,  yet  discernibly  a  part 
Whose  definition  must  conclude  all  else. 
No  possibility  of  calculus, 
Of  simplification,  interchange  of  place, 
Invariant  symbolism  of  each  sign, 
Convertibility  in  any  guise 
Would  anywise  remain  !    Language  must  be 
Self-absolute,  communicatively 
A  mere  approximation  ;  for  no  sign 
Can  bear  one  meaning  in  unlike  contexts, 
But  each  is  all  of  speech  !   The  calculus 
Would  prove  pure  fluxion,  still  determinate ; 
Ay,  static  not  in  any  part  at  all 
Save  as  each  part  is  utterly  the  whole 
And  thus  not  iterable  ;  each,  unique. 


POEMS  OF   PERSONALITY 

Nor,  to  allege  of  every  element 
Fluxional  worth  wherewith  to  calculate 
As  static  till,  beyond  the  problem,  by 
Some  strange  arbitrament  were  value  chosen, 
Were  to  perform  such  operation  through 
The  fluxion.    Nay,  the  fluxion  may  not  stand 
For  calculation-usage.   Yet,  save  each 
Be  also  all  and  thereby  of  itself 
Intrinsically  make  for  infinite 
The  problem  and  itself  such  all's  inverse 
Distinctively  determining  all  quanta, 
By  its  own  standard  constituting  allness, 
And  hence  incapable  within  the  all 
Of  any  subdivision  (which  would  add 
A  multitude  beyond  all  multitude), 
Remains  each  least  minute  —  minute  soe'er — 
Yet  capable  of  diminution  still 
(Because  not  by  its  definition  as 
Distinctive  implicating  all  there  is) 
As  merely  static  unit  capable 
Of  iteration,  hence  analysis, 
Interminably  further ;  ay,  despite 
Interminable  aggregation,  still 
Quite  inexhaustive,  plural :  yea,  in  no  sort 
92 


LEIBNIZ 

Appropriate  to  last  analysis 
Fluxionalwise  of  any  curvature 
Save  curves  whose  constancy  functions  as  straight. 
Even  as,  were  God  some  over-monad,  strange 
To  monad-ideality  (yea,  such 
False  God  I  dream'd  but  yesterday),  remain'd 
Each  individuality  of  men 
But  yet  an  unit,  single  ;  and  nowise 
An  individual,  but  each  with  each 
Still  interchangeable,  nowise  unique  ; 
Hence  capable  of  subdivision  still : 
Some  part  of  me,  myself ;  nor  any  part 
Quite  minimal  enough  to  be  myself 
Beyond  dispute  —  not  that  pineal  gland 
Of  Gaul's  geometrician  small  enough 
To  be  the  soul !   And  yet  the  soul  is  all ; 
Yet  were  each,  individual ;  each  star 
The  God,  the  dawning  also ;  if  beyond 
All  mathematic,  then  were  calculus  yet 
Scarce  metaphysic,  scarcely  adequate 
To  any  wisdom  :  as  scarce  soul,  the  shape 
Of  atomic  extent !   But  soul  were  lift 
And  comprehension  of  yon  atom-world 
To  morning-song,  to  spiritual  strength 
93 


POEMS  OF  PERSONALITY 

Now  more  than  formerly,  ay,  than  when  all 
Stars  sang  together.   Sing  they  now  my  soul ! 

Light  breaks;  each  star  in  waxing  grows  a  world, 
A  sunship  and  a  day-strength.   And  my  cell 
Of  litter'd  scribblings  where  I  turn  my  gaze 
Is  loftily  illumined  by  these  floods 
Which  fling  from  this  near  star,  my  person'd  self, 
Over  the  universe.   The  perfect  proof 
Is  mine  of  metaphysic  spirit-scheme 
Which  needs  no  God  for  overlord,  no  day 
Destroying  starship  :  as  no  calculus.  — 
The  proof  perfect  in  faith,  not  flawless  quite 
In  demonstration.   For  this  day  remains 
All  seeming-starless  to  the  sight.   No  touch 
Finds  godship  in  these  limbs  and  aching  brow ; 
Which  yearn  and   seek   beyond   world's  monad- 
scheme 

The  absolvent  harmony  I  feel  for  false  ! 
Oh,  for  fresh  logic,  strict  as  all  the  schools' 
Yet  fill'd  with  insight  which  might  save  my  work 
From  waste  ;  some  firm,  well-knit  concordance  of 
The  godship  with  the  individual 
(Which,  if  by  mere  discernibility, 
94 


LEIBNIZ 

Concludes  distinctively  all  else ;  is  whole) 
Wherein  each  proves  each ;  wherein  even  this  false 
Abstractive  generality,  these  false 
Exclusive  iterative  monad-points, 
May  stand  for  error,  posited  of  truth, 
Yea,  proving  truth  by  being  exhausted,  false! 
Then  might  the  calculus  be  wholly  true 
Not  by  approximation  but  by  full 
Rejection  of  the  explicit  elements 
Transform'd  to  absolute  uniqueness  each : 
Not  now  my  method.   Then  might  well  my  soul 
Be  more  than  mere  revolt  'gainst  current  false 
Apotheosis  of  that  infinite 
Whose  emptiness  of  all  vitality 
Is  held  for  Godhood  !   Then  might  I  be  more 
Than  Baruch's  anti-Christ:  who  ne'ertheless 
Even  in  mine  own  despite  must  yet  retain 
The  Spinozistic  God  of  worldlessness 
Beyond  my  monad-world.  —  Will  such  a  man 
Be  moulded  of  the  times  to  come  ?   Will  dawn-hour 
Some  day  be  hail'd  by  one  whose  spirit  faints  not 
Back  :  as  my  spirit  faints  to  poring-o'er 
These  differentials  ?    One  whose  harmony 
If  preestablish'd  yet  is  instant  still; 
95 


POEMS  OF  PERSONALITY 

Whose  apperception,  if  reflectively, 

Yet  absolutely  shall  conclude  in  each 

Beyond  conceivability  of  mere 

Exclusive  iteration  all  world  else 

By  metaphysic  beyond  calculus  ? 

Such  will  there  be  !  who  shall  speak  loud  and  clear 

What  now  I  dimly  feel :  what  now  I  am 

Even  in  my  perfect  failure  —  I  who  now 

Fulfill  world-being,  yea,  avow  my  truth 

Of  sunship,  starship  by  my  standard  set 

And  self-criterion  —  truth  I  fatuous 

Resign  for  figment  of  the  fever'd  brain 

Worn-out  with  much  night-watching.  — 

Hail,  Lord  Sun ! 

Quencher  of  stars  ! —  Be  God  beyond  my  soul, 
Leaving  me  space  in  little  to  reflect 
His  universe  !   The  morning  is  awake 
Without  my  chamber;  from  within  I  close 
The  casement,  monadwise  devise  my  world 
Of  calculi,  of  symbols  representing 
Type,  order,  law;  as  God  will  have  it:  dream  ! 


KEATS 

SUCH  sound  as  ocean  only,  autumn  ocean, 
Makes  in  the  mellow  silences  my  soul 
And  fainting  strength  unto  this  autumn  hour 
Respond  :  a  murmurous,  heart-upwelling  lift 
That  bursts  almost,  yet  bursts  not ;  though  at  last 
Someway  is  gone,  back-lost  into  the  void  ; 
Gone,  with  indrawing,  gasp  and  sob.    The  drift 
And  cast  things  scarce  are  troubled  ;  and  the  voice 
Nowhere  is  firm  nor  forceful ;  yet  the  depth 
And  length  and  breadth  of  all,  that  in  this  hour 
Seems  vital,  suffers,  agonizes,  yea, 
To  make  respond,  make  feel,  this  stubborn  shore 
Sea's  tragedy  of  mute  omnipotence. 

It  is  the  tragedy  of  aging  world 
And  of  my  young  indomitable  soul 
That  bursts  almost  in  singing,  sings  not  quite 
The  strong  song  of  the  sea  when  strand  and  wave 
Are  one  white  turmoil.     For  I  fail  from  strength 
By  uttermost  inception  ;  as  this  sea, 
Too  plastic  to  the  impulse,  yields  along 
Its  length  and  breadth  and  through  the  depths  of  it 
97 


POEMS   OF  PERSONALITY 
Unto  its  own  compulsion ;  and  is  lost.  — 
Had  I  the  power  of  rock,  to  sing  yet  feel  not ! 
Yea,  when  the  wave  beats  on  me,  to  be  voice  ! 

For  now  I  meditate  a  song  of  songs : 

Of  how  the  early  gods  in  tragedy 

Of  mute  omnipotence  were  all  unmade 

By  too  divine  inception.   And  the  song 

Fails  from  denoting  earth  and  men  and  Zeus 

For  new  and  nobler  Saturn ;  but  betrays 

A  sad  indrawing,  backward  sob  and  loss 

With  Saturn's  downfall,  leaves  the  old  god  there 

Undone  :  for  too  divine  inception  of 

His  piteous  destiny.  —  Would  that  my  soul 

Might  sing  the  song  of  Zeus,  Saturn  anew 

Made  godlier  by  community  with  men ! 

Would  that  my  song  might  be  Hyperion  !  — 

Would  that  my  soul  might  burst  and  find  its  voice 

Almost  't  is  so,  't  is  well-nigh  vocal  with 
The  insight  of  this  tragedy  of  mute 
Omnipotence.   The  year  will  soon  be  worn 
Out  of  this  impotence,  be  autumn  sprung 
Unto  ripe  power  of  winter.   And  this  soul, 
98 


KEATS 

Released  of  too  swift  sensibility, 

Too  much  of  apprehension,  freed  and  fair 

From  Rome  be  journeying  with  song  at  last 

Because  of  utterance  through  death.  —  But  now 

I  sit  by  this  dead  northern  autumn  shore  : 

An  autumn  and  an  ocean  I,  a  world 

Of  mute  omnipotence.   And  in  myself 

I  hear  the  lifting  swell,  the  almost  burst, 

The  sob  of  all-indrawing ;  yea,  such  sound 

As  ocean,  autumn  ocean,  makes  among 

The  drift  things  and  the  cast  stones  of  the  shore, 


99 


SHELLEY 

PEACE  be  to  mine  inquietude  of  spirit, 
Its  fever  and  its  fierce  improvidence 
Of  utterance,  and  petulance  of  heart. 
Peace  now  be  unto  me  and  let  me  be 
(Alastor-like  and  as  Prometheus'  end  !) 
All-permeative  of  this  peace-fill'd  hour. 
Let  Islam  sleep  now  with  the  sleeping  Keats. 
Let  me  be,  with  the  saturating  strength 
Of  this  firm  wind,  beyond  dejection  fill'd 
By  noon-tide  and  the  blue,  by  sea  and  sky : 
Stout  with  its  streaming  yet  be  tranquil  too, 
As  o'er  these  pine-tops,  for  incessant  speed. 
Let  the  west  wind  blow  power  and  not  dismay. 
For  I  am  as  the  mountains  and  the  sea 
A  solemn  purport ;  if  a  cloud,  no  more 
Of  lightning  nor  of  deluge.    But  I  stand 
Steep'd  in  the  breathing  of  this  atmosphere 
That  moves  and  yet  is  mighty  but  by  peace.  — 
Yon  lies  the  bark  well-nigh  prepared  to  cruise 
By  this  sweet  coast ;  and  warm  trans-Spezian  breezes 
To  bless  us  and  refresh  with  blue  and  breath 
Of  the  pristine  hyaline.    I  '11  sit  me  here 
100 


SHELLEY 

Awhile  till  all  is  trim-set ;  and  renew 

Conscience  of  this  that  I  have  lived  and  been. 

For  presage  is  (as  yon  high-toppling  cloud 

At  sail  that  swells  aloft  in  the  noon  light 

So  white  and  whelming,  angel  of  this  gulf's 

Eternal  involution  sea  with  sky  !)  — 

For  presage  is  of  some  high  change  in  me 

Which  swells  and  waxes  overweening  with 

My  yearning  to  embark  and  be,  one  season, 

Some  firmer,  wiser,  holier  than  myself 

In  unimpeded  and  direct  commune 

With  passion  which  is  not  rash  inequity, 

With  irresistible  force  which  yet  is  full 

Of  calmest  beauty,  sane  and  utterly 

True  to  a  self-containment  and  a  quiet 

Which  ne'er  was  mine.    Can  beauty  be  aught  else 

Than  peace,  whate'er  of  outward  stress  enshrine 

Its  poise,  its  logic  and  its  dignity  ? 

For  flame-like  I  have  tower'd  above  the  ground 
On  wing  and  wild  song  as  the  lark  ascending 
And  seen  in  vision  what  these  eyes  of  earth 
Had  never  seen ;  but  to  the  face  of  earth, 
Its  comfort  and  its  vast  inspiring,  been 
101 


POEMS  OF  PERSONALITY 

As  blind.  Shadow  and  shine  have  swept  through  earth 
And  I  known  nought  for  towering  sunward  still. 
(And  yet,  to  tower  and  be  but  earth-born  more 
By  every  sun-pulse  !   To  be  cloud  in  truth  : 
Or  pine-tree  yonder,  rooted  even  as  branch'd  !) 
Thus,  have  I  not  transcended  every  hue 
Of  nature  or  of  humankind  to  give 
To  each  thing  somewhat  of  a  mystery, 
Phantasm  and  image  of  its  proper  shape 
Projected  rainbow-wise,  but  no  true  gleam 
Of  the  earth-paradise  I  named  yet  knew  not  ? 
Have  not  I  made  sweet  mouthings  of  the  scents 
And  sounds  beneath,  above,  beyond  me  here  — 
Only  to  question  still,  and  speak  nowise 
Inherent  beauties,  the  conclusive  self 
Of  each  that  is  a  conscience  even  in  mine  ? 
I,  of  all  earth  enamor'd,  yet  have  said  : 
'  There  is  no  God  ' ;  and  have  my  god  of  love 
In  cloud-shadow  and  sunshine  nowhere  found, 
For  ignorance  that  his  right  form  and  face 
Are  in  me,  therefore  in  the  least  of  these. 
Him  I  have  call'd  no  personal  deity 
But  some  all-power ;  and  yet  have  furbish'd  forth 
Him  in  the  fancied  Eros  of  an  age 
1 02 


SHELLEY 

When  all-power  spake  not  nor  was  known  of  men, 

Thus  yielding  some  false-person  and  no  god. 

Yet  if  an  all-power  of  this  human  soul 

Be  known  and  be  my  substance  (as  being  known 

Implies  such  self-conclusion),  shall  I  seek 

Beyond  the  form  and  function  of  this  scene 

In  mine  imagining  of  its  wild  peace 

To  prove  the  person  of  its  deity 

In  this  my  person  and  in  each  of  these 

Who  individually  each  may  know 

(By  sentience  and  by  insight  occupying 

Function  and  form  of  any  other  here) 

A  meaning  to  the  name  and  deed  of  love  ? 

How  have  I  lived  in  love  and  never  known  it ; 

But  sought  beyond,  above  ;  bewailing  all 

Which  actuality  might  offer ;  even 

When  most  adorning  these,  then  most  denying 

The  personal  godhead  of  their  naked  fact ! 

Yet  see,  I  stretch  my  touch  forth  but  to  feel 
This  staggering  pine  that,  stalwart  to  the  breeze, 
Stands  world-aware  ;  and  am,  by  his  ripe,  pulse, 
Person  of  pine-stuff ;  I  am  he  —  nowise 
By  metaphor,  by  no  sham  allegory 
103 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

But  by  my  conscious  occupation  of 
His  form  and  function  as  he  holdeth  mine  — 
Each  in  his  self -respective  poise,  one  passion 
Of  cosmic  intermingling.   Yea,  how  else 
Aver  that  I  be  poet  and  he  pine 
Save  that  I  am,  in  true  imagining 
Of  insight,  pine-sap  and  pine-pristine  strength ; 
As  he  in  pine-sort  and  in  pine-degree 
(Defined  as  my  best  science  may  define  it) 
In  vegetative  majesty  likewise 
Poet-partaker  in  my  humanhood  ? 
That  I  have  written  in  early  years  how  all 
Of  earth's  subhuman  yet  were  human-like 
Aware  and  loving,  man  in  less  degree 
And  soul-fill'd  somewise  :  such  a  simpler  creed 
Missing  the  true  soul-intropermeance 
(Which  guarantees  distinctive  quality 
To  each  partaker  in  the  polar  pact) 
Might  scarce  protect  from  feverish  petulance 
Even  one  like  me  untamed  to  downright  thought 
Nor  stern  consistence  and  articulance 
Of  intellectual  process.    For  I  felt 
The  meaning ;  yet  was  tortured,  driven  to  mad 
Evasion  of  this  cosmic  universe 
104 


SHELLEY 

Of  sane  interdependence  fact  with  fact : 

Felt  merely  ;  fretted,  utterly  debarr'd 

From  logic's  satisfaction  :  found  not  peace 

In  picturing  mystery  beneath  (an  earth 

Sentient  anthropomorphically)  and 

A  phantasm,  overhuman  though  none  less 

Anthropomorphic,  unreal,  inane  !  — 

Such  still  the  conceit  of  this  unquiet  screed 

Which,   'spite  these  firm  winds  and  insistent 

stems, 

These  toppling  clouds  of  earth-inwoven  weight, 
I  'mid  the  bosom  of  yon  Apennines- 
Scrawl'd  late,  of  figures  dark  for  flood  of  light, 
Wan  shapes  in  chariots  hurtling  through  those 

throngs 

Of  earth's  unburied  and  unburiable 
Ghost-things  of  Sheol ;  and  their  rout  was  all 
A  pageantry,  a  symbol  —  and  I  ceased 
Still  with  no  substance  —  ay  :  '  What,  then,  is 

Life  ?  '  — 

Such  question  can  be  answer'd  by  no  creed 
Of  fantasy  and  ghouls  of  humankind 
Peopling  no  space,  else  peopling  spaces  where 
Are  other  lives  and  nurtures  still  ignored. 
105 


POEMS  OF  PERSONALITY 

Such  creed  pursues  peace  of  a  breathless  chase 
Hot-hearted,  nor  knoweth  how  insistency 
Of  unfantastic  insight,  the  pure  touch 
Of  pine  or  strong  wind  as  the  pine  or  wind 
Is  most  itself,  such  touch  on  palm  or  brow 
Solves  the  enigma,  yields  a  perfect  peace 
Of  intropermeation  still  more  sure 
With  every  pulse  of  passion !  —  Such  is  Life.  — 

Alastor  lives  not  nor  Prometheus  ; 
Keats  is  eternal  memory,  nought  else. 
Yet  am  I  here  of  this  eternity 
Call'd  cognizance,  my  conscience,  ay,  of  each 
As  each  is ;  cognizance  in  every  touch 
Strengthen 'd  by  passing  ever  on,  and  aye 
Evolving ;  which,  involving  all  of  earth 
And  ocean,  sky  and  shadow,  sun  or  soul, 
Is  spirit :  and  needs  not  work  by  witchery. 
Such  strength,  being  self-contain 'd,  stays  temper 
ate  too 

And  provident  in  every  utterance.  — 
Let  this  communing  be  my  first  of  hymns 
To  Beauty  intellectually  sane 
And  worth  the  dedication  of  a  life 
106 


SHELLEY 

In  peace  as  was  not  hitherto  vouchsafed  : 
A  Beauty  which  is  common  deity. 

They  call.   The  bark  invites  me  to  new  life. 
Though  yon  cloud  burst,  what  boots  it  ?    It  hath 
been. 


107 


HEGEL 

IN  reference  to  Christ,  the  '  Christian  claim 
'  To  Godhood  of  a  single  man  '  ?    Would  I 

*  Who  speak  of  God  as  of  an  Absolute 
'  Be  acquiescent  to  enroll  myself 

*  Christ-follower  or  no  ?  '  —  A  subtlety 
I  fain  would  answer  by  a  subtler  still ! 

The  correspondence,  friend,  between  us  two 
Stands  dignified,  ennobled  by  the  zeal 
With  which  thou  seekest  truth.  To  thee  alone 
(And  this  shall  clarify,  yea,  new-define 
What  save  for  thee  remain 'd  in  me  obscure 
And  stale)  I  may  discriminate  the  true 
From  false  with  literal  judgment,  feeling  firm 
Reliance  in  thine  own  discriminative 
Interpretation.    And  I  hold  the  point 
Of  best,  most  fruitful  attitude  toward  Christ 
Perchance  a  moot  one  ;  still  not  wisely  solved 
Unless  with  due  regard  for  audience, 
For  chance  to  be  interpreted  aright. 
Thus,  for  the  mass  of  those  my  discipline 
Holds  sway  with,  might  there  be  a  dangerous  drift 
Of  radical,  even  atheistic,  rant 
1 08 


HEGEL 

In  misinterpretation  of  my  terms  ; 

Else,  haply,  an  unspiritual  ipsism  ; 

Spake  I  with  uttermost  unbosoming. 

In  manuscript  or  volume  thou  wilt  find, 

Save  this,  no  rigid-wrought  examining 

Of  Christ  and  Christian  in  their  present  worth 

As  creeds  for  ripe  truth-seeking  :  save  in  this 

The  which  when  well-digested  (and,  if  need, 

Refuted,  friend)  I  charge  thee  straight  destroy 

Out  of  men's  sight.   The  times  are  not  yet  ripe 

Save  only  mine  and  thine.  —  For,  know,  the  scheme 

Of  truth  develops  in  men's  absolute  mind 

With  grade  from  false  toward  true  ;  the  foregone  truth 

Turn'd  false,  the  truth  to-come  not  yet  ripe  truth 

Save  for  those  souls  elaborate  beyond 

The  mean  elaboration  of  men's  souls. 

Christ's  truth  for  Christ  might  well  be  true,  if  still 

By  logic  in  the  sequel  shown  now  false. 

(And  first,  the  figment  of  presumptuousness 
In  thee  or  me  or  Christ  or  any  spirit 
Needs  no  consideration.    Where  the  truth 
Is  spoken,  acted,  lived,  attains  itself 
Expression,  no  presumptuousness  hath  place  — 
109 


POEMS   OF  PERSONALITY 

God  or  no  God ;  Christ,  I  or  thou  proved  God ; 

Were  utmost  reverence  —  a  becoming  self- 

Scrutinization  of  one's  absolute  mind  : 

If  only  proof  be  diligently  firm 

Nor  words  be  wasted  in  avoiding  proof.) 

In  brief,  then,  friend,  thy  question  might  be  put : 
What  bearing  were  of  Christ  and  Christ's  God-claim 
In  Christian  creed,  to  my  well-reason'd  system 
Of  absolute  spirit  in  its  self-defined 
Intrinsic  involution  of  itself  ? 
The  claim  of  Christ  well  known  and  well  avouch'd 
Were  personal  divinity  —  if  not 
Divinity  of  self  as  merely  man, 
Yet  in  some  sort  divineness  of  the  man  — 
Not  obviously  made  for  nor  applied 
To  any  man  save  Christ  of  all  mankind. 
Thus  in  a  general  acceptance  Christ 
Means  claim  to  Godship  of  some  single  man 
As  man,  though  not  of  other  single  men. 
Remains  the  choice  (admitting  absoluteness 
For  philosophic  postulate  approved) 
'Twixt  this  and  others  of  that  triune  scheme 
Which  dominates  all  thought  —  this  realism 
no 


HEGEL 

And  those  the  mystic  and  the  spiritual 
In  dialectic  —  these:  divinity 
Of  general  mankind  and  only  so 
Of  any  as  each  might  be  held  alone 
An  instance  of  the  Platonistic  type  ; 
Or,  otherwise,  of  every  man  as  self 
In  absolute  sense  ;  and  therefore  all  mankind 
Divine,  alone  by  virtue  of  each  Godhood 
(Though  these  as  God  are  utterly  at  one) 
Collectively  arraign 'd.    And  of  this  last 
Might  Christ  without  distortion  seem  to  speak 
When  purged  of  metaphor  in  passages 
Which  place  believers  as  his  brethren  in 
The  Father's  household  whereof  he  is  chief. 
(But  more  of  this  anon.)    For  mine  own  part 
My  teaching  at  first  sight  might  seem  to  urge 
Divinity  of  general  mankind 
(The  mystic  among  these  hypotheses) 
Not  of  a  special  person,  whether  Christ 
Or  thee  or  me  or  any  of  them  all. 
And  I  have  seem'd,  for  mere  conformity 
To  general  prepossession,  to  except 
Christ  from  the  rule  and  still  acknowledge  him. 
Are  these  two  views  compatible  ?  —  I  scarce 
in 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

(For  teaching's  sake  in  my  timidity 

Of  misinterpretation  —  nay,  how  strange 

In  most  men's  eyes,  from  the  truth-champion 

Such  compromise-confession  !)  thus  have  sought 

Exact  discrimination  hitherto 

Between  these  views.    Posterity  will  find 

Choice  of  interpretations ;  nothing  shown 

In  any  work  of  mine  to  guide  the  choice 

'Twixt  general  humanity,  else  Christ. 

Now  for  the  subtlety,  the  fresh-defined 

Elaboration  of  this  absolute  soul 

To  new  discrimination.   Times  shall  be 

When  this  must  be  attempted  'fore  all  men 

For  teaching's  sake  ;  but  times  are  not  yet  ripe 

Save  mine  and  thine.    Destroy  this  screed  ;  I  fear 

False-witness  by  the  general  mistaking 

Of  that  I  have  to  offer  thee  alone. 

For  Christ  the  self-assertion  would  suffice 

(If  Christ  be  God  ;  and  God,  no  person  else) 

Without  communication  to  men  else ; 

For  general  assertion  of  mankind's 

Genus  and  thus  divinity,  must  one 

Proclaim  upon  the  house-tops  truths  no  ear 

(If  absolute  truth  be  not  of  any  person) 

112 


HEGEL 

Could  comprehend  nor  any  tongue  proclaim  ; 
For  the  new  subtlety  shall  I  and  thou 
Suffice  for  self,  for  Christ,  for  all  mankind  ! 
'T  will  out,  in  its  ripe  time  of  absolute  truth ; 
If  not  (as  in  the  sequel  shown)  by  force 
Of  general  system,  yet  by  interplay 
Of  men's  mind-absolute  :  as  mine  and  thine. 

To  criticise  the  current  Christ-idea  :  — 
'T  is  well  compatible  with  absolutism 
That  one  might  claim  rights  of  an  absolute, 
Identity  with  fatherhood,  a  sonship 
Yet  uncreate.   In  so  far  as  did  Christ 
Mean  Christ's  own  personal  divinity 
Stands  the  conception  philosophic,  proven 
By  merest  spiritual  rights  of  self. 
And  such  claim  were  consistent  equally 
As  fundamental  postulate  within 
Each  of  these  three  schemes  of  alternative 
'  Godship'.    Were  Christ  the  sole  God,  were  mankind 
God  and  we  functions,  were  each  man  as  self 
A  Godship  and  conclusive  each  of  all, 
On  either  of  these  three  hypotheses 
Might  Christ  proclaim :  *  I  and  the  Fatherhood 
113 


POEMS  OF  PERSONALITY 

'  Are  one  '.    I  thus  accept  fully  in  form 
Christ's  claim  to  be  divine.    The  problem  lies 
In  practical  interpretation :  whether 
Christ's  Godship  can  exclude  men  else  from  God ; 
Or  if  Christ's  Godship  merely  means  a  right 
As  instance  of  a  godly  type  which,  though 
Alleged  for  self-defining,  scarce  allows 
Unless  by  metaphor  that  any  man 
Is  wholly  godly;  or  if  Christ  concludes 
A  system  of  divine  Christ-absolutes, 
Call'd  men,  conclusive  each  of  all.    And  so 
Grant  we  the  Christ-claim.   Can  it,  then,  preclude, 
As  in  the  popular  acceptance,  rights 
Of  Godship  in  disciples,  scribes,  ourselves  ? 
At  first  thought  one  would  yield :  In  this  duplex 
Coincidence  of  Godship,  the  All-One, 
With  man,  the  One-of-All,  must  such  a  truth 
Be  single  in  each  aspect;  God  being  one, 
Must  God's  coincident  and  antipode 
Be  likewise  one.    (Though  opposite  of  one 
Were  multitude?)    Such  is  the  Christian  creed, 
Which  shunning  ipsism  must  assign  to  Christ 
The  single  God-antipodean  share 
In  universal  Godship.     But  at  once 
114 


HEGEL 

Asserts  the  paradox :  If  God  be  whole 

And  yet  coincident  with  fmitude, 

Then  fmitude  unto  the  all-divine 

Is  somewhat,  is  of  rights;  and,  being  not-God, 

Must  either  oppositely-coincide 

Else  limit  very  Godship.    And  this  last 

Conceit  of  limitation  stands  debarr'd 

By  very  concept  of  an  absolute. 

Hence,  if  the  Christ  be  God  (and  God  someway 

Must  man-define  Himself,  else  scarce  were  God 

As  man's  world  is  concern'd),  can  no  man  be 

Excluded  from  such  Godship  as  is  Christ's. 

The  realism  of  the  '  thou  not  I ' 

(Of  Christ,  though  not  ourselves,  for  very  God) 

Stands  utterly  refuted  by  the  truth 

That  God  and  Christ,  who  ne'ertheless  were  man, 

Are  one.    And  hence  suggests  the  mysticism, 

The  doctrine  of  a  God-in-general 

Wherein  we  share,  whereof  are  instances 

Thou,  I,  or  Christ  alike ;  but  neither  one 

Divine  as  person  still.   Will  this  prove  truth  ? 

And  here  my  teaching  plausibly  might  be 
Supposed  to  halt :   Granting  the  Christ-divine, 


POEMS  OF  PERSONALITY 

Then  general  humanity  were  God ; 
And  each  were  instance,  none  yet  utterly 
A  Godhood.   Yet  I  hold  and  now  propound 
A  system  more  consistent  with  the  truth 
That  opposite-coincidence  inheres 
'Twixt  God  and  finitude  as  shown  (indeed 
By  utmost  logic ;  and  for  faith)  by  Christ. 
For,  lo !  the  God,  even  though  generalized 
Must  (else  the  self-defining  Absolute 
Were  nought ;  else  Plato,  ay,  and  Aristotle 
Abundantly  arrived  at  truth  in  holding 
The  species,  the  particular,  related 
To  its  own  type  and  thus,  though  '  mystically ' 
Identical,  realistically  still 
Delimiting  the  universal !)  must 
The  opposite-coincidence  inhere 
Of  type  with  instances  :  no  type  conceived 
Except  of  instances.    Wherefore  to  cite 
A  general  humanity  must  mean 
Not  a  conceptually  severable 
Entity  which  may  or  may  not  have  such 
And  such  a  realization,  and  remains 
Itself  regardless  of  each  special  case ; 
Yet  somewhat  which  hath  definition  but 
116 


HEGEL 

In  so  far  as  defined  in  cases,  each 

Contributing  a  definition,  yea, 

Uniquely  other  than  such  type-defined 

Of  any  group  or  instances  beside. 

Thus  a  determinate  *  in-general ' 

Inheres  but  to  each  instance  and  were  else 

Nothing  in  general  because  defined 

By  no  self-instances  but  limited 

By  facts  :  and  universalness  debarr'd. 

Wherefore,  when  Christ's  claim  reads :  Each  man 

of  all 

Is  Godhood  by  the  general  intent 
Of  each  to  oppositely-coincide 
With  infmiteness  ;  shows  that  fmitude 
(Which,  by  its  single  self -defining,  posits 
All  men  as  system-members  each  in  place 
Distinct,  unique,  non-interchangeable) 
Determinate  when  conceived  as  from  the  stand 
Of  each  determinant ;  each  man  of  all : 
Self-totalizing,  universal,  God 
Even  by  finally  contributing 
Of  God-the-One  an  unique  worldlihood 
Which  were  not  otherwise  coincident 
With  God,  nor  God's  in  any  sort  as  world. 
117 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Wherefore  the  general  humanity 

Is  genuine,  actual,  definable 

Only  if  I,  thou,  Christ  or  each  alike 

Is  absolute  Godhood  :  none  excluding  aught 

From  ultimate  divinity ;  and  yet 

No  Godhood  independently  conceived 

Regardless  of  the  character  and  truth 

Of  each-and-each  man  as  each  lives  and  breathes ; 

And  God,  God,  but  by  God-proved-very-man. 

Friend,  is  the  subtlety  appreciable  ? 
Note  the  nice  demarkation.   This  were  no 
Plurality  anthropologic  of 
Greek  superhumans  who  are  merely  men 
Made  men  immoderate  and  impossible. 
No  multiplicity  of  God  as  God 
Inheres  to  true  finite-coincidence. 
For,  even  as  the  God  is  infinite 
In  each,  and  only  infinite  at  all 
By  utterly  unique  discrimination 
Of  man  from  man,  yet  even  this  infinite 
Of  each,  being  total,  is  the  same  in  each, 
And,  being  the  same,  is  just  the  unique  God 
The  more  discriminately  by  each  new 
118 


HEGEL 

Recomplication  through  this  universe. 
Christ  is  the  God,  I  am  the  God,  and  thou 
And  each  of  any,  not  by  being  alone 
Singly  some  God  ;  nor  yet  by  instancing 
A  general  identity  defined 
In  some  mere  mysticism  quite  apart 
From  actual  definition  in  its  facts ; 
But  each  by  being  discriminately  one 
Of  many  unique  others  ('  house  '  among 
The  '  Father's  many  mansions ')  only  so 
Insistently  by  very  virtue  of 
An  irreducible  distinctiveness 
Defining  all  else  each  as  each  and  so 
A  total,  universe,  each  in  its  best 
Discrimination  ;  each  as  self  thus  God  : 
The  God  ;  and  there  is  never  God  beside. 

Thus  is  the  scheme  of  absoluteness  shown 
An  actual  affair  of  thee  and  me 
Even  as  of  Christ  in  Christ's  good  hour  of  life  ; 
Of  each  man  in  his  hour  of  noblest  strength. 
Whence  follow  many  doctrines  strange  to  thought 
In  present  days  :  how  '  freedom  '  were  this  sense 
Of  utter  world-conclusion  through  each  act 
119 


POEMS  OF  PERSONALITY 

(Howe'er  in  other  view  necessitated) 

Firmly  discriminative  judgmentwise ; 

Not  by  mere  choice  (delimiting  the  soul 

Even  by  the  rejected  act-alternative) 

But  by  will-insight  thus  coincident 

With  the  compulsion  :  how  mortality 

Were  by  the  absolute  coincidence 

Not  stale-perpetuated  day  by  day 

Through  soul-migration  nor  through  influences 

Of  works  and  wisdom  on  succeeding  men, 

But,  through  the  eternity  of  each  least  act 

As  new-defining  every  act  of  all, 

Immortal  to  itself,  beyond  all  death  ; 

Though  none  the  less  this  flesh-mortality.  — 

Thus  in  this  brief,  my  supreme  act  of  judgment 

Uncompromisingly  discriminant 

Of  multiple  meanings,  postulates  my  spirit 

Unto  itself  an  immortality, 

A  freedom  and  a  Godhood.  Friend,  I  thank  thee.- 

Judge  if  I  be  Christ-follower  or  no ! 


1 20 


EMERSON 

THIS  quiet  Concord  to  mine  indolent  thought 

Hath  long  been  inspiration,  but  to-day 

Shows  limitation,  faileth  to  attain 

Sufficient  dignity  to  ape  man's  soul. 

Nature  hath  been  my  spirit's  resting-place 

To  pass  in  pleasance  'twixt  the  banks  of  God 

The  safeguard,  the  immutable  firm  truth. 

I  have  been  as  this  river  slothfulwise 

Allowing  alteration  toward  the  sea 

Yet  scarce  conceiving  doubt  of  the  green  land. 

To-day  't  is  different.    I  return  to-day 

(Here  in  my  hand  a  book  disquieting 

Writ  of  one  lately  dead  whom  'live  I  knew  not) 

To  this  my  shady  station  o'er  the  stream 

Not  still  as  homeward  to  the  heart  of  things 

But  strangely,  skeptic  of  the  sweet  wide  scene 

Its  amplitude  to  satisfy  the  soul 

Fit  for  horizons  that  enshrine  no  truth 

Taboo'd  beyond  an  inmost  scrutiny. 

Mine  is  emancipation  from  all  creed 

To-day  :  no  citizen  I  of  earth,  no  scion 

Of  fiat,  no  member  of  multocracy  ; 

121 


POEMS   OF  PERSONALITY 

Just  by  mine  effort  to  establish  truth, 
Create  world-system  and  autocracy  — 
Yea,  no  disciple  even  of  this  one  dead 
Whose  work  I  find  so  faith-disquieting ! 
Whatever  be  there  of  an  Over- Soul 
Without  my  soul  must  prove  its  right  to-day 
To  credence,  must  establish  as  my  banks 
The  bounds  and  conduits  of  a  private  power 
Else  universal  in  and  of  myself. 
To-day  primarily  I  am  myself : 
If  also  soul,  how  then  were  soul  aught  else  ? 

The  doubt  were  doubtless  unintelligible 
To  any  save  myself,  yea,  unto  me 
In  any  mood  save  mine  upon  this  morn : 
Disturb'd  if  not  enlighten'd,  deeply  stirr'd 
And  troubled  by  the  witness  of  this  man. 
He  speaks  not  plainly,  seems  almost  with  me 
To  need  some  over-lord,  yet  ne'ertheless 
Attempts  a  system  of  distinctive  things 
Self-unified  without  amalgamance  — 
Unlike  the  mergence  in  mine  over-soul. 
I  have  announced  divinity  that  seem'd 
While  overarching  and  enshrining  soul 

122 


EMERSON 

To  liberate,  infmitize  the  man. 
And  so  have  friends  interpreted  the  faith 
With  satisfaction.   I  alone  demur. 
For,  lo,  the  liberation  seems  to  prove 
But  novel  Platonism,  like  the  Greek's 
A  leveling  to  Rome's  democracy  : 
A  substitution  of  the  legal  right, 
As  each  is  man,  for  world-self  moralism  ; 
As  one  is  all,  for  all-conclusiveness 
Of  universe  unto  each  self  unique. 
For,  if  an  Over-Soul  (which  may  not  owe 
Relations  various,  but  were  thus  finite 
Being  incomplete  in  each)  communeth  with 
All  men  alike,  were  every  man  alike 
Equal  in  insight  of  the  absolute  truth  ; 
Each  person  (if  no  longer  atomized 
As  in  the  Stoic  schema ;  yea,  though  lifted 
To  bland  fatuity  of  the  perfect  State) 
Unit  equivalent,  indifferent 
(Brahmanic,  if  not  quite  Christ-like,  mysticism) 
I  or  the  thief,  yea,  man  even  or  the  beast  — 
Incapable  all  of  value ;  scions  all 
Of  blank  arbitrament,  authority 
And  fiat  beyond  reason  :  worth  ruled  out 
123 


POEMS  OF   PERSONALITY 

With  any  judgment  of  morality, 
With  any  quality  of  each-not-each. 
That  yonder  bird  sings  with  a  meaning  made 
Birdwise,  unlike  the  meaning  of  my  songs, 
Is  ultimate  distinction.    I  may  sing 
Wood-notes,  may  wonderfully  feel  in  me 
Response  unto  yon  woodland  rhapsodizing ; 
The  ultimate  discrimination  may 
Be  overlaid  with  what  one  will  of  rich 
Mysterious  insight  of  the  neighbor-need. 
Yet  am  I  still  not  nature  ;  no  divine 
Absorbent  mingleth  mine  with  other  persons 
As  I  here  stand  and  saturate  a  world 
(Even  as  this  Hegel  hath  his  hold  on  me) 
With  thought  unthought  of  any  other  man  : 
Suggested  yet  nowise  put  forth  of  him. 
The  Indie  myth  and  Maia  were  scarce  mine  own  - 
More  than  did  Plato  so  intend  his  truth. 
Yet  Plato  fail'd  with  his  high  poetizing 
To  speak  an  unambiguous  truth  to  mine. 
In  him  lay  seeds  of  blank  indifferences 
Which  cropp'd  with  ripening  of  Lucretian  moods 
To  self-despair.    I  must  assure  mine  own 
Ecstatic  insight  of  the  whole  divine 
124 


EMERSON 

Against  deintegration.   For  the  truth 
Must  hold  some  system  of  this  earth  to-day, 
Of  me  and  men  and  yonder  murmuring  stream 
Unsame  in  attribute  as  if  no  God 
Were  immanent  nor  any  whole  inhered. 
Nor  will  identity  of  generic  terms 
In  attribution  vouchsafe  sameness  to  them 
Save  genus-substance  be  some  Over-Soul !  — 
Relinquishing  no  truth  which  I  have  grasp'd 
Of  immanence,  how  save  the  hierarchy 
Of  them  and  me  from  mergence  in  the  mob 
Of  monad-puppets,  equally  of  God 
Indeed  ;  but,  being  indifferent,  hence  inane  ? 
The  green  land  flows  within  itself ;  the  sea 
Is  image  of  the  unresting  alterance 
Of  all  things ;  even  this  quiet  Concord  shows 
Passage  but  by  appreciation  (ay, 
Contrast  in  speed  or  kind  of  passage)  scarce 
By  any  standard  of  unchanging  earth. 
How  save  the  soul  from  Heraclitus'  flux, 
Pure  fmitude  plausible  to  no  sense 
Of  some  morality  :  relationship 
Responsible  beyond  the  moment-man, 
Inherent  yet  to  him  ?    How  save  this  shore 
125 


POEMS   OF  PERSONALITY 

Whereon  I  stand  ;  how  prove  within  myself 

Judgment  of  speed  nor  kind  of  passage,  ay, 

Assurance  even  of  this  quiet  stream, 

This  indolent  land,  this  sea  toward  which  all  tend 

As  type  and  image  ?   Were  we  sheer  distinct, 

Pure  flux  and  passing,  then  were  we  but  the  more 

Self-imperceptible,  alike  inane. 

And  thus  would  this  voice  in  these  pages  prove  it, 

Essaying  if  scarce  comprehensibly 

A  static  continuity  through  all-time, 

An  immanent  eternity  in  change.  — 

There  shall  be  soul  though  Soul  may  be  no  more 

An  over-world  nor  mere  infinity. 

Someway  shall  I  perceive  the  stream  doth  move 

Though  Zeno,  though  Spinoza,  though  myself 

Have  proven  a  motion  all  impossible. 

Someway  the  stream  doth  move  and  is  by  motion 
An  inspiration,  still  a  type  to-day 
Of  mine  own  nature-born  morality. 
The  hour  of  this  Hegel  in  my  heart  hath  come 
To  beat  beyond  the  master  by  some  hint 
In  him  contain'd  :  no  over-immanence 
In  anywise  infmitizing,  save 
126 


EMERSON 

The  soul  reside  in,  be,  the  moving  man's 
Irreconcilable  discrimination 

From  each  and  all  things  else  that  make  his  world ! 
Such  were  a  system  of  this  earth  to-day  ; 
The  intimate  necessity  of  each 
For  definition,  self-determinance, 
Requiring  every  other  each  in  place 
And  character  determinate  thereby. 
For  thus  might  I  establish  of  myself 
An  universe,  be  as  I  boast  divine. 
Thus  might  I,  as  best  insight  of  mine  earth, 
Admit  each  unto  his  divinity 
Of  world-establishment ;  each  person  thus 
Concluded  of  my  system  :  thus  alone 
Conclusive  each  and  equally  divine. 
Nor  might  another  schema  so  provide 
System  sans  all  hiatus  ;  this  of  all, 
Appropriately  to  mine  otherness 
From  every  item  of  mine  earth  to-day, 
Affording  godship  unto  each  and  each 
Neither  as  units  of  plurocracy 
Nor  yet  as  emptiness,  Brahmanic  void. 
The  dialectic  were  superfluous 
In  pettier  detail.   All  the  soul  doth  need 
127 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

For  self-establishment  were  just  the  need 
Of  each  for  each,  within  its  actual  place 
Thereby  defined,  thereby  concluding  all 
In  individuals  each  determinate  : 
Each  individual  determinately 
An  universe,  conclusive,  spiritual. 
Or  mind  or  matter  may  within  the  spirit 
Be  truthfulest ;  but  both  are  immanent 
Each  truth  in  sort :  '  mind  ',  as  I  feel  my  world 
A  soul-establishment,  germane  to  self  ; 
'  Matter ',  as  that  same  world  concludeth  me 
And  so  hath  semblance  of  an  outward  thing 
Compulsive  and  beyond  my  private  power. 
But  world  is  my  determinative  self 
At  growth,  at  dialectic  if  you  will, 
Yet  absolute  through  all  sans  over-lord. 
The  problem  of  such  time-eternal  soul 
Were  manifold,  a  process  scarce  for  me 
To  formulate,  though  hinted  of  him  here  — 
This  Hegel  who  has  work'd  within  me  now. 
I  for  an  hour  have  grasp'd  the  great  insight, 
Have  given  it  speech  within  my  heart :  a  system 
Of  earth  as  earth  is,  spiritual,  self-contain 'd 
Yet  nowise  naked  of  variety : 
128 


EMERSON 

A  system,  self-containment  which  is  beauty, 

The  beauty  that  my  creed  hath  wholly  miss'd.  — 

Thus  doth  my  quiet  Concord  keep  its  flow 

In  varying,  determinate  contrast 

With  this  green  land.   And  thus  are  land  and  sky 

Still  fitly  pictured  from  my  station  here 

Whose  sweet  familiarity  of  view 

Fills  an  horizon  proven  my  very  soul 

Replete  with  meaning  for  my  daily  thought 

Now  sanction'd  beyond  stain  of  indolence.  — 

Thus  am  I  risen  through  nature  unto  God. 


129 


WORDSWORTH 

IT  is  a  world  serenely  white ;  a  sky, 

Whence  snow  hath  lately  fallen,  palest  blue. 

And  only  where  some  craggy  fell  uprears 

Too  steep  a  slope  for  crystal  covering 

Doth  earth  show  anywhere  unto  the  sky 

Its  customary  face.   Save  for  yon  bluff 

Of  perpendicular  uprise  seems  world 

No  mortal  struggling ;  but  undying  peace 

Spread  dedicate  to  God.   And  I,  alone 

Of  this  high-moulded  summit,  like  some  cloud, 

Of  which  God's  heaven  were  the  home,  find  here 

A  place  not  unlike  home,  a  station'd  rest 

Unto  my  soul,  whence  earth,  mine  earth  and  God's, 

Spreads  patently  a  picture  of  the  truth 

Of  life  immortal. 

Yet  yon  scrags  none  less 
Are  earth's,  are  God's;  and  seem  eternally 
At  struggling  ;  mortal  by  their  every  move 
And  wasting ;  as,  save  for  this  snpw-of-an-hour, 
This  covering  of  a  momentary  creed, 
Were  earth  all  struggling  up  unto  the  clouds 
Which,  sea-begotten,  bear  unto  these  hills 
130 


WORDSWORTH 

Oblivion  but  scarce  serenity.  — 

What  were  that  immortality  of  labor 

Which  must  be  earth's  ;  and,  being  earth's,  be  God's 

And  mine;  which,  snowless,  peaceless,  yet  were  some 

Sufficient  satisfaction  to  the  soul  ? 

A  growth,  a  flowering  of  these  grassy  fells 

When  the  high  sun  is  quickening,  and  meanwhile 

A  waiting,  patient  and  expectant  thus 

Not  for  this  simulated  peace  of  pure 

Pale  sky  and  sheeted  snow,  but  for  those  laws 

Which  in  the  course  of  God's  diurnal  year 

Make  snow,  as  rain  and  sun,  by  wear  and  wash, 

Frost-wrench  and  tempest- wrack,  to  quicken  earth 

Sea-born  and  struggling  ?  —  Is  there  any  peace  ? 

Lo  !   I  have  dream'd  of  life-immortal  as 
A  peace  ;  and  came,  to  brood  over  these  snows 
As  o'er  a  world  not  stale  and  customary 
In  mystic  ecstasy.   But  now  I  see 
No  mere  peace  here ;  no  immortality 
Of  form  and  function,  yet  no  worker  in  it ; 
Of  pale  Nirvana,  heaven  beyond  a  world  ; 
Rather,  some  heaven's-own  substance,  yea,  sea-born 
And  struggling,  fallen  over  earth's  scarr'd  face 
131 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

To  soften,  not  conceal,  suggest,  not  cover 
From  understanding  and  intelligence, 
The  peace  and  immortality,  the  presence 
Of  God  within  His  world  and  each  of  us 
As  each  is  worker  and  his  works  have  life : 
Despite  all  momentary  creed  of  life 
Beyond  the  grave  and  God  beyond  His  world ; 
A  symbol  of  the  eternity  in  time, 
Each  moment,  even  conclusive  of  times  all : 
Yea,  of  the  wonder  of  accustom'd  things.  — 
Thus  turn  I  and  descend ;  take  up  mine  earth 
Anew,  cured  of  the  mystic  quietism. 
Thus  take  I  up  the  task  with  eye  indeed 
Uplift  unto  these  mountains  whence  hath  come 
This  help,  ennobling  .labor  and  the  strife 
Of  serious  contemplations.   For  each  task 
I  sense  for  some  stage  of  the  strenuous  soul's 
Good  growth  in  wisdom,  never  ceasing,  not 
One  instant  to  be  wholly  overlaid 
By  any  snow-oblivion ;  but  where  rear'd 
Aloft,  distinct  and  startling,  there  most  meant 
Of  every  cloud-wrack,  every  fog  o'  the  sea, 
As  even  of  each  intervale  and  glen 
Snow-sleeping.    I  descend  ;  but  learn  each  task 
132 


WORDSWORTH 

Serene  but  by  insistent  earnestness ; 

Eternal  by  an  infinite  influence 

Essential  in  the  task,  not  born  of  it ; 

An  absolute  inference,  divinely  high, 

Wide,  deep  and  strong  through  all  God's  elsewhere 

tasks 

Of  earth  and  men.    And  thus  a  task  of  God 
Immortal  and  appropriate  to  peace. 


133 


THOREAU 

THOUGH  scant  ten  furlongs  here  from  human  home, 

Here  are  there  creatures  only  of  the  wood  : 

Now  with  the  coming  of  the  fall's  first  frost 

As  not  whilst  man  moved  in  the  summer  fields 

Am  I  alone  anthropomorphic  here.  — 

Scarce  sign  from  any  beast  hath  been  since  dusk 

Closed  in  around.   No  sound  from  world  without  me 

Save  wash  of  the  glimmering  lonely  lake  with  cry 

Of  far-off  loon  more  lonely,  or  the  surge 

Of  wind  in  the  trees ;  and  constant  crackle,  flap 

Of  the  camp-fire  flame.     The    half-moon  waxing 

sweeps 

Westward  ;  the  stars,  Orion  following  on, 
Pass  o'er  me  :  me  alone  with  my  fed  flame. 
For  this  is  an  espousal  of  the  woods : 
I  and  primordial  fire  at  last  alone.  — 

Once  had  I  desire  of  better  bridal.     But 
'T  was  contrary  decreed.   And  I  am  wed 
To  these  alone,  I  mateless  of  my  kind  ; 
I  fronted  by  the  problem  —  is  it  of  God, 
That  mutual  insight  men  may  best  name  Love  ?  — 
134 


THOREAU 

Of  mates  inanimate  —  a  divine  of  Nature, 

But  no  divinity  of  human  kind  ! 

I  sole  anthropomorphic  ;  and  my  God 

Of  daily  human  help  to  me  denied. 

The  question  is  if  God,  denied  to  me 

In  social  longings  toward  my  nobler  kind, 

Be  God,  be  yet  divine  here  as  of  these  : 

Whether  love's  insight  be  of  beast  and  branch 

Admissibly  as  seems  for  me  ordain'd. 

The  question  might  not  come  upon  a  man 

Whose  marvelous  desire  of  marriage  might 

Attain  fulfillment :  that  the  social  strength 

Might  daily,  hourly  wed  with  social  strength 

Of  insight  and  perception  similar 

And  thus  might  learn  world-sanctity  of  both 

By  individuation  (heart  with  heart 

In  the  union)  soul  from  soul  —  the  humane  God  ! 

I  had  built  altars  to  the  humane  God, 

Had  ne'er  been  stoical,  aloof,  remote 

As  now  :  I  was  not  born  the  cynic  —  but 

Now  is  it  come  upon  me  by  my  fate 

And  must  be  met  alone  by  me  of  men 

(Not  openly  in  works  I  make  for  men) 

Unto  myself  and  for  the  saving  of 

135 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

My  universe  by  me  possess'd  alone, 
And  of  my  heart  which  only  earth  may  hold. 
How  feel  divinity  of  me  and  mine 
Denied  the  prime  anthropomorphic  truth 
Of  mutual  insight  mutually  defined  ?  — 
I  am  then  mated  with  primordial  flame, 
A  creature  of  the  woods,  a  beast,  a  branch 
Whilst  none  less  human.    Is  such  life  divine  ? 

I  may  not  find  in  this  primordial  flame, 

These  dim  sky-neighboring  tree-tops,  nor  the  stars 

Nor  painted  moon,  nor  these  ensanguined  leaves 

Of  the  flickering  fire-lit  circle,  that  intent 

Of  mutual  recognition,  divination 

Which  in  the  hold  of  human  heart  in  heart 

Directly  meaneth  God  and  tells  of  Him 

Transcendent  wholeness  of  the  immediate  soul. 

My  spirit,  yea,  so  much  more  than  comprehends 

The  pitiful  simplicity  of  these 

('Soe'er  complex  to  mere  analysis ! ), 

Is  still  so  much  alone  beyond  their  strength 

Of  social  sympathy  that  I  must  needs 

Deny  of  these  -direct  associates 

The  marks  indicative  of  self-sublime 


THOREAU 

Spirituality,  of  reverence 

Unto  my  soul  acclaiming  them  its  own. 

These  are  not-mine  because  they  know  not  me 

Nor  feel  me  more  than  as  some  clod  of  earth, 

Some  miasm  or  some  wandering  holocaust, 

Some  dread,  some  danger  and  some  death  to  them 

Uncomprehended  in  the  workings  of 

Its  untoward  power.   Such  is  a  man  to  these, 

If  he  be  aught  at  all ;  not  known  as  man 

But  as  a  beast,  a  branch  (ay,  mischief-working) 

Resourceful  over  any,  but  not  in  kind 

Anthropomorphic  as  I  know  my  power. 

Unto  a  life  uncognizant  of  man 

I  cannot  yield  the  title  of  divine  - 

'Soe'er  outspread  to  stellar  systems,  though 

In  mine  own  sight  of  generality 

I  be  as  nought  within  its  size  and  strength 

As  I  am  clod  —  such  world  were  godless  still. 

No  Nature  can  be  God.   May  I  a  man 

Shorn  of  God-kinship  sink  to  atheism, 

Yield  me  unto  the  truth  of  earth  and  these  ? 

I  doubt  me  if  such  godlessness  be  truth, 
Or  earth,  as  such  earth-fact,  be  fact  at  all ! 
137 


en 


POEMS   OF  PERSONALITY 

Earth  may,  as  I,  within  and  for  itself 
In  each  least  detail  mean  an  universe 
Similar  in  a  spirituality 
Minuter  merely,  in  a  self-detail 
Less  complex  in  recomplication,  yet 
Entire,  so  whole,  divine,  wherein  my  manhood 
Finds  plain  acceptance  as  I,  being  a  clod, 
Am  clod-wise  spiritual  and  enshrined  of  these  ? 
Yea,  in  the  subtler  scheme  this  difference 
Of  fact  anthropomorphic  from  the  fact 
Vegetal,  chemical  (distinction  final 
And  therefore  perfecting,  requiring  all 
Distinguish 'd  facts  for  definition  of 
Each  intimate  essence),  yea,  were  final  proof 
In  either  sort  respectively  of  earth's 
As  even  of  man's  conclusive  personal  scope 
Of  consciousness  interminable,  each  — 
Within  its  absolute  series  qualitative  — 
So  guaranteed  fulfill'd  omniscience. 
I  then  am  godly  by  my  recognition 
In  sympathetic  insight  not  alone 
Of  personalities  so  similar 
As  like  for  like  for  my  faith  to  return 
But  herein  and  more  widely,  readily 
138 


THOREAU 

By  insight  of  an  earth  whose  term  distinct 

As  otherwise  than  mine  I  yet  acknowledge 

A  sympathy,  an  active  interest 

Creatively,  which  mine  creator-wise 

Must  reconstruct  to  realize  at  all. 

So  either  way,  by  bridal  or  by  espousal 

Even  of  the  flame  primordial,  world  and  I 

Detect  a  fundament,  simplicity 

Of  reconciliation,  self-support 

In  mutual  antithesis  reclaim'd. 

So  I  alone  anthropomorphic  here 

Am  godly  though  my  God  no  more  may  be 

Anthropomorphic  ;  though  this  earth  of  beast 

And  branch  and  fed  fire  and  the  stars  on  high 

Be  neither  earth  nor  star  as  men  have  dream 'd 

Condemning  them  to  clodliness  unsoul'd 

As  man  they  fancied  alone  worthy  God  ! 

Such  have  I  learn'd  by  biding  but  apart 
A  moment,  some  few  furlongs  from  my  kind 
As,  fate  commanding,  hath  my  spirit  craved 
Toward  learning  new  God  in  default  of  old. 
The  Deity  I  learn  of  wilderness 
Were  scarce  the  deity  of  human  home 

139 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Secrete  from  wilderness.   For  man  'mid  man 
Associate  in  clanship  and  in  creeds 
Ecclesiastic  seeth  but  with  an  eye 
Sole  to  man's  interest  at  the  best,  denying 
All  rights  and  interests  of  his  weaker  kind 
(And  thus  denying  much  of  man's  own  soul !) 
Unrecognized  for  kith  and  kin  through  God, 
Through  contrast  and  through  insight  each  in  sort. 
Lo!  my  desire  of  marriage,  once  fulfilPd 
(Save  she  my  mate  anthropomorphic  had 
With  me  espoused  the  fire  primordial  here  !) 
Had  barr'd  my  spirit  forever  from  the  truth 
Of  God  the  uttermost  entirety 
(By  characteristic  quality  absolute) 
Of  each  world-system  :  each  yet  infinite 
Because,  within  itself,  from  other  selves 
Interminably  distinctive  through  the  whole 
Of  star-stuffs,  earth  and  beasts  and  branches  each 
Anthropomorphic  only  as  my  heart 
Of  man  is  soul  beyond  such  lesser  souls, 
More  complicate  of  quality,  more  God. 
Yet  thus  are  the  creatures  of  the  forest  godly 
As  I ;  and  God,  that  insight  best  call'd  Love, 
Immanent  in  us  all,  as  each  is  nowise 
140 


THOREAU 

Other  and  thus  defineth  self  by  each.  — 
I  had  desire  of  better  bridal,  but 
'Twas  contrary  decreed.   And  I  at  last 
Acknowledge  Nature  and  am  not  alone ; 
Am  cynic  never,  and  still  dedicating 
My  work  to  man,  yea,  though  aloof,  remote. 
Yet,  had  I  wedded,  haply  then  through  her 
Some  inward  soul-distinction  had  been  seen 
More  intimate  :  more  marking  me  as  man 
Above  not-man  ;  more  marking  Truth  for  God  ? 


141 


BROWNING 

STRANGE,  sudden,  startling,  that  my  book  should 

be 

*  Proven  beloved,  demonstrably  held 
'  At  heart's  core  of  the  cultured  ;  popular 
'  Of  the  public '.   Ay,  my  publishers  '  besieged 
'  For  reprints  '.  —  Here,  these  scribblings  from  the 

post 

Fervent,  frenetic  ;  yea,  as  utterly 
Super-appreciative,  wide  of  the  mark 
Of  a  just  estimate,  as  hitherto 
In  complementary  infelicities 
My  critics  crush'd  me.   Had  I  done  those  things 
Men  cursed  me  for,  this  craziness  had  come 
Scarce  sooner.   Had  I  left  but  more  undone 
The  things  they  condescendingly  approve 
Should  I  adopt  them  mine,  still  had  I  held 
Inviolate  my  private  sanctity 
Of  sure  self-judgment ;  nor  been  overwhelm'd 
With  this  effusiveness.  —  'T  is  all  well  meant, 
Doubtless.    'T  is  yet  distressingly  apart 
From  principles  of  poetry  and  strength. 
While  it  was  scorn,  I  could  work  dogged-wise 
142 


BROWNING 

In  equipoise  ;  sad  that  my  verse  should  be 
Miscomprehended ;  certain  none  the  less 
That  nor  miscomprehension,  nor  the  laws 
They  arrogantly  promulgated  might 
Alter  one  whit  the  care-felt  speech  of  soul 
I  seriously  expatiated.    Now 
That  somewhat  of  my  soul  hath  seriously 
Touch'd  them,  't  is  well,  'tis  justified  :  but  yet 
Shakes  it  the  equipoise.    For  I  must  see 
Equal  miscomprehension ;  sense  how  few 
Of  all  these  sympathizers  rightly  feel 
True  trend  and  purport  of  my  poems.   So 
Stand  I  alone  ;  not  as  before  in  sort 
To  champion,  urge  consideration  for 
A  genuine  intention  —  so  proceed 
In  work's  assurance  to  redoubling  work  — 
But  to  be  deprecator,  advocate 
Of  sterner  estimate  ;  to  work,  if  work 
At  all,  in  self-distrust,  decrial  of 
Inmost  endeavoring.   Now  must  I  sit 
Idle  awhile,  now  that  success  has  come 
Half-sought,  to  buffet  back  these  waves  that  would 
Wash  out  the  individual  estimate 
In  general,  blind,  emotive,  judgmentless 
143 


POEMS  OF  PERSONALITY 

Alleged  community.   Now  must  I  weigh 
As  ne'er  before  the  meaning  of  my  mind. 

For  I  have  from  the  first  found  tendency 
In  all  my  verse  toward  individualism 
In  a  new  manner.   And  't  were  pertinent 
To  my  art-form  were  mine  art-judgment  quite 
Apart  from  critical  tradition,  sure 
Of  self-criteria  which  yet  should  not  be 
Eccentric  nor  beyond  most  views  of  men 
Unbalanced  from  an  average  estimate. 
I  have  thresh'd  o'er  and  o'er  within  my  brain 
Suggestions  of  insanity,  have  sought 
A  thousand  times  discern  incipient  marks 
Of  my  diseased  departure  from  the  sense 
Of  most  of  the  cultured  ;  ay,  when  differing 
In  personal  opinion  have  I  sought 
More  keenly  than  best  critic  of  them  all 
So  to  detect  opinion  which  might  show 
No  reasonable  warrant,  as  to  catch 
My  judgment  obviously  wanton  ;  still 
Have  by  the  skepticism  but  been  led 
Further  along  the  same  criterial  paths 
To  more  elaborately  determinate 
144 


BROWNING 

Uncompromising  non-conformity. 
Though,  as  it  may  be,  I,  regretting  still 
Miscomprehension,  have  (as  all  men  must) 
In  some  sort  stultified  my  judgment,  yearn'd 
For  common  ground  ;  portray 'd —  scarce  by  intent 
Deliberately  acknowledged  —  in  the  speech 
And  art-form  of  their  pseudo-classic  cult 
A  characterization  never  quite 
The  truth  I  'd  make  it  in  a  genuine  art. 
Still,  despite  such  scarce-conscious  tendency 
To  blur  distinctions,  seek  communicancy 
And  sanity  at  all  cost,  stand  I  sane 
In  my  firm  non-conformity ;  and  would 
Deprecate  too  much  comprehension,  plead 
Mistake  of  fact  in  those  who  honestly 
Now  are  my  flatterers  and  fancy  fate 
Mixes  men's  spirits  to  absorbency 
Of  personal  irreducible  self-poise. 
Nay,  it  is  '  utterly  determinate 
'  This  world  of  mine  and  thine  '  —  I  catch  myself 
Quoting  my  critics  :  they  who  fancied  mine 
The  mysticism  !    Let  me  calmly  face 
The  paradox  which  leads  me  to  maintain 
The  very  phrases  of  the  enemy 


POEMS  OF  PERSONALITY 

Over  against  the  championing  of  friends. 
The  paradox  :    How  can  determinism 
Of  feature,  universalism  still 
Of  purport,  best  be  found  in  monologue 
(As  this  my  monologue)  of  personal  truth  ? 
How  avoid,  on  the  one  hand  emptiness 
Of  mystical  inconsequence  —  a  speech 
Of  sentimental  egotism  without 
A  world  shown  autovital ;  on  the  other 
The  piecemeal  profitless  rehearsal  of 
My  place  and  thine  as  to  some  chronicler 
Such  acts  appear  ?    Lo !  for  the  first  were  such, 
Based  in  immediate  sensibility 
Lawless  and  orderless  of  any  soul's, 
As  these  my  new-made  sycophants  suppose 
They  prove  of  me,  a  sheer  community 
Sans  dignified  distinctiveness  of  person 
In  ultimate  judgment ;  and  the  second  were 
The  classic  dialogue  or  pluralogue 
Which,  based  in  some  supposed  eternity 
Of  ordering,  dramatic  poet's-truth, 
Tells  no  self-judgment,  neither  mine  nor  thine ; 
Unions  no  self- responsibility ; 
Presents,  depicts,  permits  speak  each  a  part 
146 


BROWNING 

The  puppets  of  the  scene  —  in  no  way  mine 
Nor  any  person's  ?  —  Let  my  monologue 
Dialogue-wise  dramatically  prove 
Its  own  supremacy  in  yielding  place 
Subordinate  to  just  their  give  and  take. 
For,  while  I  live,  will  yet  my  verses  prove 
Their  fresh  sincerity.    When  I  am  not, 
Shall  men  arise  to  crush  them  ;  and  there  be 
No  comprehender  who  can  say  :  'T  is  truth. 
One  shall  arise,  haply,  obscure  of  name 
But  cogent,  facile,  who  shall  say  of  me, 
With  no  one  to  dispute,  what  now  no  man 
Would  dare  maintain.    Let  me  now  answer  him 

And  he  shall  say  :  '  'T  were  sheer  vulgarity 
'  Of  personal  opinion.   This  his  speech 
'  Of  monstrous-mouth'd  soliloquy  but  sets 
'  World  as  he  sees  it,  as  he  would  it  were 
'  Or  were  not ;  ay,  characterizes  all 
'  By  blindest  passionate  unestimate, 
'  Nowise  by  ordering  of  art's  cosmic  scheme. 
'  His  were  a  poetry  of  barbarism, 
'  Wanting  establish'd  canon,  wanting  art's 
1  True  objectivity,  true  beauty-speech 
147 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

'  Of  reasoning  humanity.    How  call 
1  Such  primitive,  ay,  protoplasmic  rant  — 
'  Guiltless  of  symmetry,  propriety 
'  And  absolute  proportion  —  poetism 
'  Of  modern  meaning  ?    Rather  is  the  world 
'  Of  modern  meaning  but  affirming  more 
'  And  more  art's  classic  preestablishment 
'  Of  real  ideals,  of  eternal  forms 
'  Whereto  our  acts  are  moulded  ! '   How  shall  I 
Fully  consider,  entertain  and  test 
This  condemnation  ;  who  would  yet  condemn 
Myself  for  overdose  conformity 
To  just  those  unideal  abstract  terms 
Of  outworn  classicism  he  'd  uphold  ? 

For  in  my  first  flash  of  self-sensate  power 
I  spoke,  if  youthfully,  yet  manly  too 
My  self  forth  in  a  person,  thought  and  speech, 
Toward  this  Pauline,  toward  that  Sordello  ;  still 
Dramatic  only  by  objective  force 
Of  my  world-unioning  in  point  of  view 
Adaptive,  recreative  of  the  truth 
Call'd  David's,  Paracelsus'  :  now  mine  own. 
Thus  far  a  fair  beginning  in  a  form 
148 


BROWNING 

Not  altogether  novel,  none  the  less 
Rational,  genuine,  believed  in  :  my 
Speech  in  so  far  as  I  were  merely  self 
The  lover,  the  narrator ;  else  my  speech 
As  I  were  David,  Paracelsus.   But 
Soon  came  the  tempting  of  convention,  soon 
The  yielding  to  the  outworn  classicism 
Of  playwright  dialogue,  the  give  and  take 
Of  puppet-persons,  plausibly  the  speech 
Of  powers  not  mine  own  which  make  for  good 
Or  evil  sans  responsibility 
Of  mine  for  making  every  mouth  speak  truth. 
Such  were  the  fallacy  :  an  order'd  scheme 
Beyond  the  poet's  authorship  ;  a  world 
Realistical  imposed  as  from  without 
On  a  mere  chronicler :  the  gross  mistake 
Of  all  mere  classicism  —  general  law 
The  scapegoat  for  the  puppets'  fallings-short ! 
Such  were  my  Strafford,  Luria,  my  Blot 
In  the  'Scutcheon,  Druses,  Victor  and  King  Charles  ; 
Puppet-plays  :  if  not  perfect  of  their  kind 
(Not  mine  such  technic),  'twas  because  I  felt 
Fallacy  :  —  I,  the  author,  clean  escaped 
From  authorship ;  my  art  alleged  some  world's  ! 
149 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

And  from  the  first  the  critics  took  to  task 
My  private  personal  self-poise  ;  alleged 
Even  my  forthright  drama  still  too  germane 
To  individual  bias  ;  branded  those 
My  people  of  their  pseudo-classic  cult, 
My  Strafford,  Tresham,  Luria  —  but  me  ; 

*  Mere  puppets '  (how  all  tongues  cleave  to  that  word ! ) 
Solely  because  too  little  puppet-like, 

Too  self-contaminate  !  —  Too  much  mine  own, 

Alive  and  genuine  !  —  And  now  the  crowd 

Of  sycophants,  echoing  critic-cry 

With  counter-purport  of  approval,  fawn, 

Flatter  for  my  supposed  escape  at  last 

From  '  objectivity  ' ;  *  pure  sentiment 
'  Of  soul's  immediate  mysticism  '  express'd 

In  *  allegory  of  my  moods  and  aims  ', 
1  Their '  moods  and  aims  by  being  conceived  so  vague 

As  to  fit  none.   Wherefore  I  stand  appraised 

For  an  alleged  yet  rightly  unperform'd 

*  Subjectivism  ' ;  and  condemn  myself 
Scarce  for  excessive  objectivity 

As  truth  defines  it,  but  for  too  close  clutch 
Of  the  classic  outward  act,  the  puppet-speech 
Supposed  not  still  mine  own  :  the  universal 
150 


BROWNING 

Not  individual.   So  to  the  claim 

Of  him  I  parley  with  I  say  at  last : 
'  Mine  were  too  much  the  mere  conformity 
'  To  general  abstract  conservatism 
'  Of  cultural  tradition  :  losing  thus 
'  Art's  genuine  objectivity  of  self 
'  Expressive  through  each  puppet-circumstance, 
'  Determinate  but  universal  too. 
'If  the  first  crude  essay,  the  youthful  whim, 
'  Were  too  much  lover,  not  enough  Pauline  ; 
'  Narrator,  scarce  Sordello  ;  yet  the  truth 
'  Lies  in  development  toward  surer  speech 
1  Like  David's,  Paracelsus' :  now  mine  own 
1  As  their  truth  should  be,  would  be,  were  they  now 
4  Citizens  of  my  century  in  time 
'  Contemporaneous  at  soul  with  us. 
'  Which  in  a  sort  they  were  ;  my  ought-to-be 
1  (Ultimate  standard  of  all  truth  in  art) 
'  But  an  implied  development  through  theirs. 
'  So,  to  your  worn-out  classicism,  the  cult 
'  Of  chronicle,  of  puppet  plausibly 
'  Speaking  his  law-taught  part,  accusing  fate 
'  Else  calling  on  the  gods ;  never  at  soul 
' Protagonizing  :  "I,  responsible, 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

'  "  Am  fate,  the  gods ;  my  world  of  circumstances 

*  "  Is  mine  alone,  and  mine  alone  the  chance 
'  "  To  right  it,  comprehend  it  and  explain 

*  "  Before  all  men  a  world  intelligible 

1  "  Not  extra-orderly,  but  through  and  through 
'  "  Self-comprehensive  "  :  such  is  my  reply  : 

*  Sir,  misinterpret  not  my  first  attempts 
'  Too  little  worldly-wise  to  self-explain 

'  A  circumstance  not  worthy  a  grown  soul ; 

*  Nor  set  for  standard  of  my  full-grown  art 
'  A  pseudo-classicism  never  quite 

*  Self-felt,  germane  ;  so  not  my  world  at  all, 
'  Nor  any's.    But  accept  for  best  at  last 

'  These  new ;  now  press-prepared,  else  waxing  quick 
'  Beneath  my  pen,  fledging  from  out  my  brain, 
1  To  stand  or  fall  with  me  ;  my  soul's-own  world, 
'  As  utmost  apprehension  sets  it  right, 
{ In  circumstance  and  scenery  to  suit 
'  Great  situations  of  imagining  — 
'  Proportion'd,  symphonied  and  symmetrized 
'  By  self-poise,  universal,  intricate 
'  Yet  only  thereby  total,  infinitely 
'  A  self-sustaining,  autovital  art  — 
'  My  truliest  life  :  my  Guido,  Andrea, 
152 


BROWNING 

Caliban,  John,  Giuseppi,  and  the  Pope, 
Lippo,  Pompilia,  and  Balaustion  ! ' 

Who  shall  have  set  world  forth  as  I  shall  speak  it, 
My  world,  a  world  by  being  so  worldly-mine  ? 
No  shrinkage  to  an  insignificant 
Mere  sentimental  maundering  to  catch 
The  silly  sycophants  ;  no  cowardly 
Cord-twitching  that  the  marionettes  may  dance 
Nor  show  the  showman  —  him  who  made  them  so 
Who  shall  be  stronger,  still  must  ease  his  strength 
As  I,  in  speaking  self  forth  in  the  speech 
Of  great  souls,  great  by  self-poised  circumstance, 
Not  blindly  passion-warp'd,  but  more  and  more 
Personal,  comprehensive  of  world-life  ! 


153 


MATTHEW  ARNOLD 

NOW  the  swift  sun  in  heaven  wins  day  by  day 

A  loftier  light ;  earth  in  her  laboring  now 

Increaseth  hourly ;  and  all  things  seem 

To  breathe  in  strenuousness  of  taking  on 

New  burden,  new  responsibility 

By  very  virtue  of  aspiring  lift 

And  spring  of  the  year :  that  rest  is  far  from  all : 

That  yearning  after  dreams  is  a  dead  thing. 

Yea,  such  were  life,  to  wax  and  be  inform'd 

Of  manifold  new  meaning  constantly, 

And  only  so  to  understand  content. 

Lo  !  what  containment,  what  satiety, 

What  organ'd  equipoise,  what  peace  preserved 

In  high  endeavor  endlessly  renew'd  ! 

I  have  endeavor'd  ;  but  have  not  known  peace. 

I  have  had  peace  in  purpose,  hence  have  miss'd 

it. 

I  have  endeavor'd  autumnwise  to  be 
A  winter  of  some  statued  mould  and  form 
By  outworn  dignity,  by  antique  pose 
False  to  a  modern  mission.  —  Let  me  be 
Mobile  as  May- world  ;  myriad,  manifold 
154 


MATTHEW   ARNOLD 

As  blades  and  blossoms.   Let  me  weigh  now  well 
The  modern  meaning.   Let  me  learn  my  soul. 

It  is  the  old,  old  word  :  this,  '  Know  Thyself '  ; 
Stale  as  their  Greek  confusion  of  that  self 
With  '  me  '  or  '  thee  '.   And  I  have  feign'd  some  Greek, 
Impersonated  some  atomic  mould 
Of  private  purpose  ;  whilst  my  social  world 
Was  yet  not  of  me ;  in  the  strife  of  things 
Been  soul-impassible,  been  stoic-strong 
By  cowardly  evasion ;  else  have  been 
But  deprecator,  ay,  conservative 
Of  truths  whose  needed  conservation  proved 
Their  incompatibility  with  now, 
Their  falsity  as  I  have  sought  them.   Yet 
My  self,  my  person  now  must  be  the  world 
Of  modern  implication,  a  self-world, 
Yea ;  and  a  spring-world,  as  the  soul  of  the  year 
Is  spring,  not  autumn  nor  earth's  wintering. 
As  the  swift  sun  in  heaven  shall  be  my  song 
Of  liberal  assumption,  taking  on  me 
The  burden  as  a  blessing  of  all  functions 
Fallen  to  the  now-born  !   Was  the  song  of  old  — 
So  simple-sane,  so  mystic-mythical !  — 

155 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

A  cowardly  avoidance  of  such  creed 

And  cult  as  yonder  Sophocles  might  deem 

Crux  of  an  uttermost  modernity  ? 

Were  any  work  that  seems  so  chaste,  so  far 

From  tumult  of  an  actuality, 

By  any  peradventure  meant  to  be 

Evasive  of  soul's  daily  intercourse 

And  stint  of  due  perplexity  of  path  ? 

Could  any  art  be  whole  by  emptiness? 

Was  not  the  world  then  old,  the  soul  as  young 

To  grasp  it,  as  are  now  my  world,  my  soul  ? 

Quick  both,  as  pictured  in  this  passing  spring  ? 

Never  were  beauty  a  mere  contemplation, 
Nor  God  a  reminiscence.    If  I  fail 
To  find  in  models  of  our  modern  art 
Criterion  for  satisfaction,  if 
These  creeds  and  formulas  of  churches  stick 
In  the  throat,  am  I  then  left  alone  of  the  world 
A  misplaced  pagan,  Phidias  born  too  late  ? 
No  man  were  born  misplaced,  none  sprung  too  late 
Out  of  the  sun-lift  and  the  lap  of  life 
Which  bringeth  forth  in  season  every  thing  ! 
But  with  the  still-increasing  flux  of  earth 
156 


MATTHEW   ARNOLD 

Evolve  art  and  belief,  develop  form 
And  function  of  our  loftiest  intellect 
In  vastest  grasp  and  passion.   As  we  be 
Now  a  new  world  that  stands  not  satisfied 
With  God-beyond  ;  shall  God-within-the-world 
Be  any  metaphor  calPd  Zeus  indeed  ? 
Shall  God  be  of  the  world  as  I  and  these 
Though  not  divinity  of  them  nor  me  ? 
Shall  mine  Empedocles  absorb  my  soul 
To  atheism  and  contempt,  that  art 
And  God-creeds  need  renewing  ?    Rustum  were 
The  nobler  puppet,  who  fought  out  his  life 
To  tragedy  but  not  to  cynicism. 
Oh,  for  some  theme  of  modern-made  idea 
Which,  matching  spring  in  inborn  novelty, 
Stands  ever  old,  older  than  Zeus  or  men 
By  being  to-day  divine,  some  world-device 
Of  absolute  soulship  speaking  in  the  mouth 
Of  me,  not  Rustum  nor  Empedocles ! 
No  Tyrian  trader  from  the  world  shall  hoard 
His  splendor  for  salvation,  no  dismay 
Shall  rant  on  flame-bursts,  nor  to  element 
Resign  the  soul  !    But  something  of  a  faith 
In  understanding  of  a  modern  mood 
157 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Shall  mean  God  most  in  complications  sprung 

Of  fluxion,  spring-life  and  the  lift  of  earth 

Inevitable.   And  my  theme  shall  be 

Thus  Greek,  thus  Phidian,  ^schylus  anew 

By  dealing  in  the  plain,  spontaneous, 

Self-language  of  the  times,  most  pure,  least  foul 

With  obsolete  inheritance  of  myth's 

Equivocation  ;  meaning  that  I  mean. 

Thus,  then,  shall  all  this  frail  agnostic  cant 

Find  autumn's  place  ;  and  if  the  creed  be  worn 

Be  there  renewal  seeded  of  the  fall. 

Let  the  new  creed  afford  right  meaning  for 

The  creed  rejected,  let  the  new  art  show 

Old  myth  subordinant,  old  metaphor 

But  outworn  fact :  thus,  the  new  fact  full  truth. 

Now  the  swift  sun  in  heaven  wins  all  my  soul 
To  spring-truth  and  soul-cycle  of  the  year. 
In  creed  and  art,  no  skeptical  dismay 
More,  nor  withdrawal  from  the  market-place 
And  sphere  of  high  contention  faith  with  faith  ! 
Here  is  earth's  wonderful  sweet  market-place 
Of  blossoming  contention  —  'would  my  soul 
Had  learn'd  herself  so  as  a  world  of  men  ! 
158 


GORDON 

4 1  CAME,  not  to  bring  peace,  but  with  a  sword  ! '  — 
Would    that   some   power   might  bring   Christ's 

sword  to  me  ! 

His  peace  I  look  not  for :  and  yet  I  came 
To  bring  these  deserts  peace  and  not  a  sword. 

How  strangely  turns  our  goodwill  among  men 

Into  a  hate  and  mockery  of  love  — 

A  hate  without  and  mockery  within 

These  walls  that  I  have  built  about  men's  homes  ! 

How  came  I  hither,  if  with  sword  to  show 

Uncoward  aspect,  yet  with  peace  at  heart 

Intended  unto  all  —  at  worst,  a  sword 

For  those  without  my  walls  !     And  now  at  last 

Here  gaze  I  yearning  toward   that  folk   (which 

did 
So   long    forget    past    years)   that    they  '11    but 

bring 

Power  to  rid  me  of  my  seeming  friends 
Whom  I  mistrust  more  than  mine  enemies. 
Ay,  treachery  within  and  foes  without 
This  leaguer'd  city  augur  some  swift  peace 
159 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Indeed  unto  my  spirit.     Though  I  seek 

No  peace  ;  but,  as  the  Master  said,  a  sword. 

Not  for  myself  indeed  I  seek  that  sword. 

My  life  were  well-nigh  ended,  and  well-spent 

In  serving  somewhat  Christ  and  these  poor  crowds 

Of  desert  people.     But  that  at  the  last 

My  work  should  end,  not  in  some  forthright  breach 

With  those  who  will  not  love  me  nor  my  ways, 

But  in  the  simulance  of  fellowship, 

A  stab  in  the  dark,  a  thrust,  a  sneer ;  and  all 

Is  fallen  of  the  fabric  I  had  rear'd, 

Here  among  Christless  folk,  of  Christian's  faith  : 

Fabric  I  fain  had  rear'd  of  man  to  man 

Open  and  honest  if  not  brotherly  — 

Such  work  to  end  as  Judas  ended  once 

A  nobler !   Let  it  be.   The  comfort  comes 

In  the  meek  parallel :  my  goal  as  His. 

So  we  start  forth  in  singleness  of  soul 
To  live  straightforward,  act  and  speak  what  best 
Is  in  us  honest  and  above  regard 
For  what  the  world  would  have  us  speak  and  act 
Save  as  we  judge  best  to  be  understood 
160 


GORDON 

Aright  and  meet  men  on  men's  common  ground. 

But  somewhere  we  must  swerve.     As  when  I  came 

Declaring  mine  a  sword,  though  peace  at  heart 

Was  in  me.  —  Was  it  not  also  in  Christ  ? 

Was  Jesus'  end  by  treachery  because 

He  scarce  might  wield  a  sword  He  would  not  wear 

While  yet  proclaiming  warfare  to  the  world  ? 

Is  mine  impending  doom  this  that  it  is, 

Even  with  the  night  that  falleth  now  upon 

This  turbulent  city,  but  because  I  came 

No  longer  open  with  a  sword  at  heart, 

Else  peace  upon  my  brow  to  match  my  soul ; 

And  so  destroy 'd  the  fabric  of  a  faith 

In  single  purpose  by  my  double  deed  ? 

Christ,  I  accept  the  desperate  consequence 
As  Thou  acceptedst.     For  I  too  forswore 
My  singleness  of  spirit.  —  Shall  a  man 
Do  otherwise,  die  otherwise  :  than  Thou  ? 


161 


MOHAMMED  AHMED 

A  PROPHECY.   Let  the  scribes  write  it  down 
Even  as  I  speak  it.   For  it  is  my  last :  — 

God  and  the  Prophet  and  myself  I  preach 
In  provident  succession.   He  who  comes 
After  me,  Abdullahi  here,  shall  preach 
God  and  the  Prophet  and  myself  the  same, 
Who  am  the  true  Imam.   And  over  me 
Shall  Abdullahi  rear  the  tomb  which  I 
Have  founded  ;  and  shall  make  it  as  I  now 
Declare  in  vision.   For  the  length  and  breadth 
By  cubits  shall  be  equal ;  but  the  height 
Somewhat  exceeding,  as  the  heavens  are  high 
Arch'd  above  earth's  flat  floor  whereon  we  dwell. 
And  in  the  side-walls  be  there  entrances 
To  signify  my  body  still  with  men. 
Only,  about  the  whole  be  built  a  yard 
And  a  well  dug;  for  this  were  holy  ground. 
Finally  at  the  centre  based  upon 
Those  inner  arches  shall  be  raised  aloft 
First  a  pure  prism  of  six  crystalline  sides 
To  indicate  my  clarity  of  mind 
162 


MOHAMMED   AHMED 

And  so  approach  the  perfect  spherical 

Which  heavenlike  is  my  soul ;  domed,  yea,  and  gold. 

Such  is  the  prophecy.   And  let  the  scribes 

Prepare  it  for  decree  publicly  read 

As  my  last  utterance  from  God  amending 

Those  earlier  prophecies  foregone  of  how 

Mine  end  were  elsewhere.  —Ah,  but  even  at  once 

Mine  end  approacheth.   I  would  be  alone, 

Well  rid  of  earth,  with  Abdullahi  here 

(Son  of  my  spirit !)  to  confer  on  him, 

Whilst  none  shall  witness,  my  firman  from  God.  — 

Are  we  alone  ?  —  Friend  Abdullahi,  thou 
Knowest  how  I  have  longtime  sought  release 
From  this  hypocrisy  which  we  have  made 
My  pitiful  substance.   But  I  fear'd  the  fall, 
First,  of  myself  —  what  have  I  now  to  fear 
Who  feel  the  worst,  the  bitterness  of  death  ?  - 
Then,  of  this  mighty  empire  we  have  rear'd 
In  men's  credulity.   I  leave  to  thee 
A  dangerous  and  a  bitter  task  ;  and  yet 
Somewise  an  easier.   For  myself  have  been, 
If  push'd  by  thee  yet  still  responsibly, 
The  main  impostor.  Thou  needst  but  adore 

163 


POEMS  OF  PERSONALITY 

The  dome  thou  buildest  o'er  me ;  and  the  rest 
Is  plain  oppression,  grateful  to  thy  soul. 
I  pity,  ay,  thy  people  more  than  thee ! 
Temper  the  tyranny  :  't  will  longer  last 
Than  if  the  superstition  be  too  strain'd. 

The  superstition  !    How,  oft-whiles,  I  think 
Of  those  days  when  the  inspiration  seem'd, 
And  was,  from  God  ;  then  when  at  Abba  Isle 
I  taught  in  absolute  humility 
Truths  of  my  spirit,  what  I  rightly  knew 
Concerning  manhood  and  the  way  of  life 
(Oppression,  Abdullahi,  was  my  scorn  !) 
Fit  for  my  soul,  and  therefore  fit  that  men 
Should  hear  it  and  be  privileged  to  try 
Whether  to  choose  their  way  of  life  like  mine. 
God  is  so  good,  He  gives  the  truth  to  each 
So  perfectly  adapted  to  the  need, 
He  makes  it  seem  as  though  some  truth  for  all 
Alike  were  vouchsafed  :  though  such  is  not  so, 
Mine  Abdullahi.   But  it  came  to  me 
As  if  my  ministry  (thus  Moslem  folk 
Are  ever  dreaming  !)  was,  to  every  man 
The  same,  a  revelation  ;  though  forsooth 
164 


MOHAMMED   AHMED 

The  lowliest  Dongolawi  of  them  all 

Hath  truth  in  some  degree  for  him  as  true 

As  for  me  mine.    I  know  this  plainly  now. 

For,  as  death  comes  and  feverish  heat  abates, 

Are  the  eyes  open'd. —  Whence,  this  woof  of  lies 

Which  I  have  woven,  prophecies  and  worse, 

If  not  in  effort  I-  have  made  that  men 

Believe  as  I  believe,  whether  or  no 

Their  circumstance  and  each  intelligence 

Of  sense  and  reason  may  condemn  my  creed 

Available  for  me  but  not  for  them  ? 

For  thus  have  I  forsworn  my  privacy 

As  theirs  of  final  judgment  each  unique ; 

And  thus  deprived  my  faith  of  honesty. 

Whence,   mine    undue   assumption?    mine,  who 

preach 

Humility  and  abstinence,  yet  grasp 
A  god's  immunity  from  any  law 
Save  satisfaction  of  my  pride  and  lust  ?  — 
God  are  we,  Abdullahi ;  but  not  gods ! 

Thou,  Abdullahi,  knowest  even  as  I 
Whereof  we  build  our  empire  here  on  earth. 
Nor  wilt  thou  dream  I  rave.   But  thou  wilt  pray 


POEMS  OF   PERSONALITY 

With  me  that  God  be  gracious,  and  my  faults 

Be  visited  not  on  them  who  had  faith 

When  first  I  felt  and  taught  the  word  of  God — 

The  woof  of  God,  I  say,  though  now  false-warp'd 

From  the  fine  fabric  that  my  life  had  been  ! 

I  leave  it,  then,  to  thee,  the  awful  task 

To  save  this  people  from  the  ire  of  God 

As  I  have  roused  it.   Canst  thou  find  a  way  ? 

Even  the  old  hypocrisy  ?    'T  were  best. 

We  are  too  far  in  treachery  to  try 

New  ways  of  singleness.   The  folk  we  fool 

Were  leaderless,  wert  thou  less  false  than  I. — 

Fear,  save  for  them,  shall  now  be  flung  far  from 

me, 

Though  worse  for  me  may  come  than  this  of  death  ! 
Spare  but  the  tyranny ;  't  is  all  I  ask. 
Bear  no  consideration  for  my  soul. 
Absolve  me  from  no  sins  of  blasphemy 
By  ruining  this  empire  !   Rather  burn'd 
I  in  hell-fire  a  thousand  years  and  one 
Than  earn  heaven  by  apostasy  of  thine 
When  earth  depends  still  on  the  perfect  fraud  ! 
Therefore  I  tell  thee  that  the  sin  is  best. 
'T  will  save  them  from  themselves  lest  they  awake 
166 


MOHAMMED   AHMED 

To  learn  the  great  deception,  and  go  mad  ! 

For  thee,  like  me,  't  were  late  :  our  souls  are  lost, 

Call  them  to  witness  of  my  latter  end. 


167 


TENNYSON 

NOW  in  the  eve  and  twilight  of  mine  age 
I  turn  to  see  what  stadia  I  have  pass'd 
In  the  world's  road,  if  any.   And  my  year 
Hath  pass'd  and  many  seasons  over  me  ; 
That  winter  now  approacheth.    But  my  path, 
Though  beautiful  in  autumn  retrospect, 
Shows  not  so  long  —  despite  the  lengthening  haze  - 
As  I  in  journeying  along  it  deem'd. 
If  a  straight  path,  yet  are  there  backward  feet, 
'T  would  seem,  and  many  turnings  on  the  road, 
Wanderings  awide  and  strange  reluctances 
Of  yearning  memory  :  a  fear,  through  all, 
Of  these,  those  '  other  faces  ',  *  other  minds  ', 
Which  now  close  in  about  me.   Though  the  school 
Applaud  and  love,  I,  with  mine  old-age  sight 
Of  tendencies  and  meanings  hitherto 
Unseen,  can  in  nowise  applaud  my  way. 
A  way  the  blind,  the  halt,  the  backward  turn'd 
Might  travel  for  its  smoothness  which  the  feet 
Of  me  with  many  stumblings,  much  retread, 
Wrought  to  the  road  where  men  so  oft  before 
Had  journey 'd;  but  no  onway  hewn  among 
1 68 


TENNYSON 

The  noble  all-embracing  lonelinesses 

Of  earth-uplifting  solitary  thought.  - 

I  have  been  solitary  to  my  shame  : 

Though  spoil'd  with  much  laudation,  yet  alone 

In  self  and  spirit,  strange  unto  a  world 

Which  strain 'd  beyond  me ;  and  came  back  to  rest 

Unto  my  bosom  but  for  ease  and  sleep, 

Forgetful  of  day's  onward  dignities. 

Sweet  were  the  uses  of  conservancy, 

Of  backward-yearning  and  the  requiem 

Which  autumn  yields  the  year.   Sweet  the  smooth  path 

Of  verbal  dalliance,  wide  simplicities  : 

The  cowardice  which,  Platonizing  still, 

Apes  the  eternal  verities  outworn  ! 

Life  were  not  retrospect.  Yet  all  my  life 

Hath  inwardly  but  been  as  retrospect. 

Now  let  my  final  retrospect  absolve 

The  blame  ;  mine  old  age  be  not  —  Tithonus  ! 

For,  lo !  my  soul  hath  been  as  Tithonus', 

Not  as  Odysseus'.   Let  Odysseus'  be 

My  yearning  now  toward  ocean  without  end. 

Ah,  but  a  truce  to  antique  imagery  ; 
Peace,  peace  to  the  dead  language  !   Let  my  tongue 

169 


POEMS  OF  PERSONALITY 

Speak  plain,  not  mouth  Lucretius ;  find  a  speech 
Of  modern  manner,  nor  mistake  mine  own 
Bewilderment  and  latter  pessimism  — 
Echo  of  Latin  atomist  despair  — 
For  wise  modernity  !   Were  Galahad 
Or  Launcelot,  that  tale  of  Guinevere  ; 
Were  Arthur  with  his  old  companionship 
(Trite  types  whose  generality  would  serve 
For  almost  any  purpose,  any  proof : 
And  hence  are  false  to  any  in  themselves  !) 
Plain  speech,  an  earnest  prophecy  of  world 
Within  me,  truth-expression  of  the  strong 
Whose  beauty  is  by  self-determinate  grasp 
Of  literal  apprehension  —  in  the  flower 
Of  the  cranny,  God  and  all  ?   Or  were  my  richest, 
Most  perfect,  most  elaborated  piece 
Most  a  veiPd  utterance,  most  overlaid 
With  mystery :  a  dimness  ?   Yea,  that  I 
Did  once  speak  plainly  all  the  truest  of  me 
Is  little  wonderful :  when  memory, 
Regret — with  consolations  obsolete, 
Suggestions  of  an  heartening  in  faith 
Itself  a  mystery,  itself  most  veil'd  — 
Were  all  the  stuff  and  splendor  of  that  song  ! 
170 


TENNYSON 

The  rest  were  negligeable  ;  though  well-made, 
Mere  household  saws,  mere  suave  urbanities 
(Men  still  will  praise  :  '  Those  fair  humanities  ' !  ) 
Lettered,  polite,  taught  in  the  academe  ; 
Not  stuff  of  strength  nor  splendor  of  the  soul. 
For  I,  I  was  not  prophet  of  the  times.  — 
There  was  another,  one  whose  verse  but  seem'd 
Uncouth,  that  I  despised  it  at  my  heart. 
Yet,  how  he  moved  on  past  the  lagging  throng 
In  freedom  and  in  grandeur  of  plain  speech  ! 
His  very  manner  now  is  at  my  tongue 
As  truth  pleads  in  me  to  be  up  and  heard  ! 
Beyond  him  I  divine  some  statelier  verse 
(As  yet  unmade,  if  ever  to  be  made  ?) 
Of  splendid-surging  insight,  some  new  power 
(By  God-abandonment)  of  finding  godship 
In  personal  conscience  of  an  unique  world 
Wherein  no  man  is  instance  of  the  rest : 
But  each  concludes  by  definition  all : 
Plain  speech  become  beauty  by  absoluteness  ? 
'Twere  sole  alternative  to  cynicism. 
'T  were  autumn,  no  ;  nor  winter,  nor  the  spring, 
Nor  any  season  ;  but  the  round  of  all 
Concentred,  focus'd  to  the  eternal  year !  — 
171 


POEMS   OF  PERSONALITY 

His  was  a  spring.   Could  some  humility 

In  me  have  hail'd  in  him  my  complement !  — 

With  the  fair,  fine  return  of  every  autumn, 
Of  autumn  in  its  lingering  retrospect 
When  each  reverted  day  reluctantly 
Leaveth  itself  behind,  have  I  been  moved 
Increasingly  toward  song  :  that  now  I  sing 
For  ultimate  autumn  my  confessional. 
For  something  in  the  season  aye  hath  been 
My  special  inspiration.    I  have  sung 
If  most-part  of  the  springtime,  summer's  flood 
And  wintry  barrenness ;  yet  aye  the  ebb 
Of  retrospection  and  of  lingering 
Hath  been  my  burden,  message  of  my  word. 
If  melancholy  loveliness  I  leave 
To  those  that  are  bewilder'd  with  the  world 
As  I :  dim  richness  as  of  Camelot 
Seeming  to  them  Avilion's  own  vale 
(Avilion  may  be,  but  not  quick  earth); 
Idalian  Oenone,  only  dreams 
Of  modern  plasticism  unalive  — 
A  mourning  yet  for  antique  faiths  outworn, 
A  living  life  but  in  the  lost  of  things, 
172 


TENNYSON 

A  Romanhood  when  Rome  is  not  the  world  !  — 
I  have  call'd  halt  and  turn'd  but  in  my  mire. 
I  see  some  souls  which  leap  out  of  this  slough 
Of  mean  dismay:  accepting  all  now  proven 
Of  unity,  automatism,  of  each 
New  subtler  involution  of  one  clay 
From  nebula  to  poet;  yet  insisting 
The  nebulous  material  thus  proven 
Pole  but  of  spirit.    Subtler  doctrines  still 
Evolve  and  involve  from  the  lost  belief : 
Involving  no  lost  dignity  to  man 
Free  of  a  maker:  Somewhat  self-made  still; 
Not  myrmidon  of  nescience  as  I  fear'd ! 
I  see  some  souls  thus  best  conserving  truth 
By  ever  journeying  on  truth's  new  way.  — 
But  I,  I  have  no  motion  of  mine  own: 
Save  if  my  motion  be  by  retrogress, 
My  mild  despair  be  still  some  share  of  light 
Illumining  reflectively  the  faith 
Whence  future  light  shall  spring  and  be  renew'd  : 
My  movelessness  (through  all  that  was  of  strength) 
At  last  avow'd,  proving  my  motion  now. 
Yea,  though  I  am  not  now  such  strength  as  in 
Old  days  bewail'd  but  earth  and  fear'd  for  heaven, 
173 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Such  as  I  am,  I  am  :  knowing  myself. 
So  have  I  gather'd  up  all  left  behind 
Like  to  the  wholeness  of  the  enrolling  year ; 
That  there  is  no  regret :  but  on  ward  ness. 


174 


WYCKOFF 

WEEKS,  months,  and  years  at  laboring  with  these  hands 
Of  mine  untrain'd  to  toil  have  well-nigh  used 
Muscles  and  sinews  to  the  manual  work, 
Callous'd  the  skin,  stiffen'd  the  horny  grasp ; 
Subdued  frame,  fingers,  almost  brain  beside 
To  fitness  for  the  nerve-mechanical 
Brute  task ;  made  brawn  the  measure  of  my  might ; 
Man,  physic-mass !  —  Experiment's  success  ? 
Well-nigh  pure  proxihood's  reality?  — 
Some  way  the  day's  fatigue,  the  listlessness 
Of  unrewarded  search  (though  scarce  despair 
By  any  fear  to  starve) ,  relaxing  brawn 
Here  as  I  stumble  restward  through  the  dusk, 
Indeed  mere  outcast  of  the  unemploy'd, 
Areek  with  sweat,  dinn'd  with  the  city's  roar, 
Unnerves  tne  tense-strung  sinew,  frees  the  brain 
Momently  for  the  dubious  questioning  ; 
Confronts  soul  with  the  skepticism  ;  lays  bare 
Depths  of  a  void  denial.   Sole  alone 
Halt  I  amid  the  throng  where  by  the  bridge 
Shadowy  sweeps  with  sluggish  sullenness 
The  city's  sink  and  sewer :    I,  of  these 
175 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Millions  of  maul'd  humanities,  one  soul  — 

Despite  soul's  uttermost  insistency 

At  comradeship  and  merging  to  their  mould  — 

A  solitary  and  a  loneliness 

Doom'd  as  yon  river  to  receive  yet  scarce 

Assimilate ;  acknowledge  all  the  stew 

And  stink  and  crime,  the  sin ;  assume  their  filth, 

Take  tinge  and  city-substance  (as  these  hands 

Harden  to  tint  of  turmoil)  yet  stream  on 

A  solitary  and  a  power  alone 

By  weakness,  by  incapability 

Of  fixedness,  adoption  of  the  fact 

Of  any  other;  but  —  a  glimmering  doubt  — 

Sweep  on  and  hold  no  permeant  cognizance 

Of  city,  shadow  and  flare.    Even  so  my  soul 

Incapable  of  proxihood  steals  on  ; 

Rouses  and  wakes,  as  with  a  lightless  depth 

Of  dismal  fluxion,  to  the  finite  lore  : 

'Not  I,  but  thou,  thou  rank'd  humanity 

*  Of  city-stricture  and  mechanic  pain, 

'  Suffering,  pitiable  ;  not  my  soul 

'  For  any  forced  assumption  of  thy  wrongs  !  ' 

Weeks,  months  and  years !  yet  labor  as  I  may 


WYCKOFF 

Still' miss  I  proxihood  :  experiment 

Fail'd  of  perfection  !  — I,  the  flesh'd  and  eased 

In  worldly  circumstance,  yet  sensed  and  fill'd 

Of  the  physical  sufferance  of  man-made-beast ; 

I,  scientist,  philosopher,  wide  known 

And  widelier  knowing,  yet  with  ache  and  pang 

Of  the  pinch'd,  impoverished,  prevented  souls 

Of  mass'd  humanity,  by  sympathy 

Tortured,  o'erwhelm'd  ;  conceiving  passionately 

A  mission,  duty  to  be  done  for  these; 

Desiring  so,  and  reasoning  to  attain 

More  intimate  insight  of  men's  distress 

The  abler  to  make  proselyte  the  world 

To  ways  of  reparation  :  did  put  off 

(Even  as  yon  river,  swirl'd  to  tortured  pool, 

Lamps,  in  default  of  motion,  mirror-lights) 

All  circumstance  of  comfort  and  mine  ease 

Laboring  brute-like  with  the  herd.  —  Saith  not 

Christ,  '  Lift  the  stone  and  ye  shall  find  me '  ?  — 

So 

Sought  I  to  lift  and  stir  the  stone,  thereby 
Christlike  for  vicar  to  assume  the  soul 
(Even  as  yon  whirlpool  by  the  mock-lamp'd  lights) 
Of  man-made-brute  ;  to  raise  by  love  man's  least. 
177 


POEMS  OF   PERSONALITY 

Weeks,  months  and  years  :  and  still  the  soul-made- 
brute 

(Better  or  worse  than  brute,  it  matters  not) 
Of  mankind  mass'd  and  mired  is  by  no  means 
Mine ;  nor  the  proxihood :  experiment 
Daily  more  futile,  daily  more  remote 
From  pure  adoption,  adequate  insight 
Of  the  menial  misery.   At  this  twilight  hour 
Lonely  along  dull-glimmering  curbs  I  go 
Half-fed,  unkempt,  craving  the  primal  curse 
Of  labor,  longing  but  the  natural  right 
To  toil :  an  outcast  of  the  unemploy'd ! 
Yet,  in  man's  uttermost  distress'd  estate, 
No  mere  man-scum :  at  stand  here  by  the  brink 
No  city:  river-like  sensitive  indeed 
To  loneliness,  to  love  forlornness  means ! 
Failure  foredoom'd !   And  in  this  hour  I  feel 
Fatuity  of  any  vicarage, 
Insight,  nay  sympathy:  and  am  at  heart 
Love's  contradiction,  deeming  futile  all 
Approximation  and  all  guardianship. 
Can  I,  incapable  of  bosoming 
Feature  or  fashion  of  the  souls  I  'd  ape 
(As  lights  flare  but  from  surface  of  yon  stream), 
178 


WYCKOFF 

Blind  to  oblivion  of  mine  old  estate 

Which  was  mine  and  remains  —  but  should  not 

so  — 

A  standard  fix'd  for  strain'd  comparison 
Warping  the  actualization,  thwarting  real 
Appreciation  (as  yon  river  hoards 
High  mountain-outlook)  of  the  prison  pain, 
The  absoluteness  of  this  cursed  estate 
(City  but  city  and  no  gloried  gorge)  - 
So  false  (and  no  criterion  obtains 
For  fault's  correction)  to  this  state  assumed : 
Can  I,  in  ignorance  of  the  true  distress 
(Bound  to  the  ignorance  by  mountain-birth), 
In  error  at  diagnosis  of  disease 
Pander  prescription,  seek  make  proselyte 
World  to  a  reparation ;  when  redress 
Aims  at  an  end  uncognizable,  wills 
Cure  for  complaint  (this  city  stands  unproved 
By  gleam  nor  scum)  no  postulate  shall  prove  ? 
Ay,  grant  their  case  be  none  so  desperate 
As  sympathy  conceived  (the  cataract's 
Too  crude  anticipation),  grant  how  brute 
Being  brute  (if  brute  be  brutish  plausibly) 
Could  scarce  appreciate  the  solitude, 
179 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Nor  man-mere-brute  with  mine  intensity 

(This  stagnant  city    with  this  stream's  strain 'd 

sweep) 

Confront  forlornness  and  feel  finitude ! 
It  boots  not,  scarce  affects  fatuity 
Of  proxihood  and  pure  experiment. 
Yield  the  contention  ;  can  I  possibly 
Acquire  precise  criterion  the  more 
Through  recognizing  how  criterion 
Varies,  a  fluxion  ;  mine  expectancy 
Of  solitude  and  finiteness,  apart 
From  any  solitude  and  finiteness 
The  solitary  and  the  finitude 
Could  comprehend  nor  yet  belie  their  name  ?  — 
City  see  city  seen  from  mountain-side  ? 
Absurdity !   Yet  city  stands  none  less 
Beyond  (beneath,  above,  indifferent  which) 
All  possibility  of  stream's  insight 
Of  city-scum,  of  city-flare  as  fix'd 
And  irremediable,  strictured.   So 
Strictured  and  irremediable,  fix'd 
Flows  lone  yon  river,  lone  between  brick'd  banks!  • 
Ay,  what  though  case  be  none  so  desperate  ? 
'T  is  yet  the  death-disease,  most  desperate 
1 80 


WYCKOFF 

Of  man's  society  ;  needs  antidote 
None  less,  though  health  be  palpably  at  fault 
In  pitying  with  sheer  healthiness'  recoil 
(As  mountain-stream  froth'd  for  the  sewer's  fear) 
Fever  that  for  the  victim's  feverishness 
Seems  scarce  self-pitiable  at  the  worst. 
Craves  health  or  illness  febrifuge  none  less 
(Street's  putrefaction,  purifying  still) 
To  minister,  to  mouth  till  ease  obtain. 
For  by  default  of  worse  disease,  what  worse 
Extremity  can  be  for  health-redress  ? 
Miserable,  or  scarce  miserable  so  much 
As  by  my  preconceived  impulsive  plot, 
Failure  none  less  ;  no  possibility 
Of  mine  appreciation,  real  insight 
By  Christ-assumption  :  nor  no  antidote, 
No  mission  and  no  duty  through  the  world  ! 
Nay,  yielding  some  least  feasibility 
That  sweating,  toiling  ;  even  the  memory  weak 
Of  one-time  independence  and  mine  ease 
(Yon  black,  oblivious  of  the  torrent-spume)  ; 
All  expectation  of  triumphant  burst 
(Anticipant  gravitation  seaward)  wide 
Abroad  in  proselyting  of  the  earth  ; 
181 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

All  sense  of  difference  in  real  degree 

'Twixt  mine,  my  soul  promoting  proxihood 

For  enterprise  of  ethical  import 

And  this  my  mean  assumed  estate  :  destroy'd 

(Source  both  and  ocean-solace  damm'd) ;  at  last 

I  were  by  stultification  in  all  sort 

Reduced  to  just  the  appropriate  preconceived 

Or  ill-conceived  brute  proletariat :  -— 

Where  then  the  proof's  experiment  (what  stream 

For  city's  imaging  nor  purge  ?)  ;  wherein 

Were  I  other  than  him  I  seem  and  were, 

No-Christ  but  Pharisee,  the  actual  crude 

Muscle-mass  (stagnant  pool,  miasmic,  stench'd 

As  any)  worst  in  want  of  aid  indeed  ; 

No  purge,  nor  comfort,  vicar,  nor  no  God ; 

But  just  that  man,  that  man-made-brute  whose  city 

Loses,  by  gaining  me,  all  hope  through  me 

Of  purification.  —  By  profoundest  proof 

Of  perfect  proxihood,  no  proof  at  all, 

No  proxihood,  no  vicarage.  — 

I  fail, 

Avow  the  failure  :  sheer  experiment 
But  truth-annihilation  in  so  far 
As  actual  approximation  's  gain'd. 
182 


WYCKOFF 

And  with  the  plausible  experiment 

Goes  worth  of  any  insight,  power  assumed 

Of  adequate  information  imaging 

In  my  fact  any  other.   For  my  fact 

Is  stream  and  shall  be  stream,  swirl'd  ne'er  so 

strait 

Through  city's  boundaries.   And  all  attempt 
By  eddy,  whirlpool  to  assimilate 
Shows  but  a  self-denial,  self-distraught 
Admission  of  the  ultimate  nothingness, 
Nescience,  non-insight,  non-criterion, 
Denial  of  all  duty,  right  and  law, 
Abandonment  of  world-community 
For  pure  exclusion'd  self-identifying, 
Indifferent  alive  or  dead.   And  lest 
The  proxihood  (pool  clogg'd  and  choked  to  the  brim) 
Get  hold  on  me ;  and  my  Gethsemane 
Mark  end  at  last  of  every  high  resolve 
In  sheer  subdual  to  the  murk  I  'd  mould  : 
Be  one  resolve,  last,  best  a  man  may  make  — 
True  to  the  primal  self-identity 
Of  finite  individual  lapsingness, 
The  nescience  and  the  lawless  entity, 
The  lovelessness,  the  helplessness  :  one  step, 
183 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

One  cast  of  body  :  and  this  life's  soul-death 
Is  done  !   Firmly  I  fling:  and  shall  be  done  !  — 

One  stark  recoil !  —  Done  ?    Can  this  life-in-death 

Have  value,  that  the  dismal  death  in  the  stream 

Should  prompt  revolt,  create  the  new  resolve 

By  ultimate  reaction,  absolute 

Soul-estimation  of  the  world  ?    What  though 

This  body,  wash'd  and  rotting  in  the  tide 

Disintegrate  but  toward  and  through  new  life, 

Chemic,  bacterial,  vegetative,  man's 

Anew,  or  not  man's,  piecemeal,  yet  eterne 

By  process  ?    What  though  this  self-conscious  soul 

Cease  not,  but  swoon  in  the  throes  with  ne'er  an  end, 

Being  self-criterion  of  endurance  (even 

As  yon  stream,  being  but  stream,  was  yet  some  snow, 

Shall  be  some  ocean  ;  though,  for  stream  as  stream, 

Stream  still  unendingly)  ?    What  though  being-done, 

By  science  or  philosophy  alike, 

Stands  proved  impossible  inanity  ? 

'T  is  yet  this  self-endurance,  each  least  jot 

Of  multiple  manifold  redundancy, 

The  wide  determinism  interminable 

Whose  each  new  tittle  — stone  uplift  and  stirr'd  — 


WYCKOFF 

Has  absolute  value  and  soul-vicarage. 

Ay,  each  least  finite  contrast  (the  swept  stream 

Incapable  of  cityship,  yon  town 

Self-imperturbable  to  seawardness) 

Holding  at  heart,  subtending  inmost-wise 

An  ultimate  union  through  reality, 

Value,  omniscience  infinitely  whole 

By  being  but  irremediably  distinct 

(Stream  but  by  city-contradiction ;  town 

By  being  no-stream)  still  self-identified 

Each  in  and  through  all  others  totally. 

Experiment's  success  ?  —  Experiment 

Was  absolute,  perfected,  in  and  through 

Each  failure  of  the  proxihood;  this  soul, 

Not  by  inanity  of  mutual  merge, 

Purity  of  adoption  self-denied, 

But  by  development  new  day  by  day 

Of  intimate  contrast,  rich  complexity 

Of  mine  impossibility  but  through 

Distinction,  whence  —  not  self-abandoning 

All  nature,  but  of  absolute  insight 

(As  they  through  me,  I  through  the  soul  of  them) 

Original  and  natural  —  at  last 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Physician,  Christ-creator  from  the  first.  — 
Nescience  by  ultimate  delusiveness  ? 
Nay,  but  by  mediate  delusiveness 
(And  mediation,  imaging,  yon  flare 
In  the  whirlpool,  stands  final  delusion  save 
Delusion-recognized,  so  absolute  truth) 
Distinctively  the  self-world-conscience  shows 
Truth  unto  truth,  and  no  bewilderment. 
Discouragement  ?  —  This  militant  world-soul 
Of  mine  (yon  river  ceaselessly  at  sweep) 
But  by  ambition  endlessly  to  learn 
More  intimately,  more  complexly  proved 
The  richness  and  the  sociology 
Of  soul-original  transcendent  sight, 
Stands  soul  at  all :  and  confident  by  doubt, 
Constant  assured  by  utmost  skepticism, 
Proves  true  the  proxihood,  experiment's 
Success  :  and  shall  make  proselyte  my  world  ! 
I,  toiler  best  by  best  philosophy  : 
Vicar,  Christ-guardian  by  love-unioning 
In  soul-experiment,  stirring  stones  all 
(Proving  the  stone  self-stirr'd  by  world-whole  stir)  : 
Scarce  by  mere  stiffening  of  this  callous'd  palm, 
Scarce  by  endeavor  to  be  brute  —  (what  brute  ? )  — 
1 86 


WYCKOFF 

But  by  the  duty,  mission,  right  conceived 
Of  work's  infinity  in  serving  so 
Conscience,  omniscience,  God-society  ! 

Such,  for  triumphant  strength  of  twilight  doubt 
Ultimate,  doubt-defeating. — The  strong  noon 
Shall  prove  again  experiment's  despair. 


NANSEN 

'  MID  ice  and  night  onward  and  onward  :  ice, 

Night  unresisted  heaving  on  and  on 

Though  motiveless  yet  mightily  my  life 

In  passion  of  the  pack  ;  pressing  on,  on 

From  nought  through  nought :   no  progress  :   passage 

proved 

Prison ;  persistence,  powerlessness  :  or  Pole 
Or  no  Pole,  equal  impotence  !  —  In  patience 
My  soul  sees,  even  in  impotence,  fulfill'd 
The  prophecy  that  built,  equipp'd,  launch'd  forth 
Her  foresight.   Yea ;  this  power,  this  thrust  and  stress 
At  bend  and  burst  broad,  loud  below  in  the  bleak, 
My  heart  holds  ;  comprehends  ;  conclusively 
Bursts  beyond,  thrusts  down,  down  and  bounds  above 
In  freedom  of  buoyancy.   My  ship,  my  soul 
Are  motive ;  are  sun  and  strength  beyond  aught  here ! 

Passion  and  patience  of  the  universe, 
Doom'd  to  this  dead,  eternal  ice  and  night ! 
From  nought  through  nought  and  nowhere  any  end  ; 
No  bourne  to  passage,  strength  to  patience  none ; 
Motive  to  life  nor  any  life  save  death  : 

188 


NANSEN 

Moon,  and  these  myriad  stars  moon-dead  to-be  !  — 
Yet :  what  of  This  that  knows,  that  wills  an  end, 
This  God-I-Am  :  for  whom,  through  whom,  in  whom 
Alone  are  ice  and  night  and  anything  : 
This  strength-of -suffering,  power  of  life-through-death  ; 
Prophet,  transcendence  of  the  darkness  here  ? 
Something,  through  uttermost  of  ice  and  night, 
Will  that  I  question  fact ;  unfelt  before 
Somewhat  essential  beyond  ice  or  night 
Questions  the  doom  ;  demands,  if  there  be  life 
In  me  and  through  me,  how  may  death  persist, 
Ice  and  night  so  entomb  earth's  truth  to-be  ? 
World  ceases  not  though  I  cease  or  not  cease  ! 
What  of  world's  soul  that  comprehends  ;  concludes 
Together  nought  with  nought ;  proves  passage,  bourne  ; 
Chaos  yet  cosmos,  sentient-systeming : 
Moon-dearth  but  sensible  by  strength  of  sun  ; 
Strength  endless,  being  criterion  of  end  ? 
What  of  the  Self  to  science'  selflessness  : 
Spirit  to  substance  of  world's  ice  and  night?  — 
Hegel  or  Kelvin  ?    Kant  with  Christ  or  —  what  ?  — 
Lo  !  in  this  bitterly  blank  night,  the  breeze 
Blistering  this  breast  to  bleak  frigidity ; 
Here  above  bellowing  ice-blocks,  stark  aloft 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

At  masthead  'mid  these  thorn 'd  tormenting  stars, 

This  vinegar,  this  mockery  of  moon  : 

Must  I  alone  this  hour  sweat  through  this  passion 

Of  intellectual  agony  made  mine  ; 

Wrestle,  resolve  (so  crucified  my  soul 

Vicar  for  this  dumb-arctic  eloquence) 

World's  problem  of  perpetuance,  of  power : 

In  truth's  name  how  an  universe  can  be  !  — 

I,  so  be  intellect  for  deaf  and  dead, 

Savior  for  snows  that  scarce  can  think  or  speak, 

Christ  for  the  ice  and  night :  to  prove  for  these 

Philosophy  or  science,  faith  or  fact :  — 

Conclusion  foregone  that  I  speak  as  Christ 

Speaking  their  self  best  in  this  self  of  mine, 

Speaking  myself  best  in  the  self  of  these  : 

By  sympathy  a  faith  —  not  selfless  fact : 

An  intellectual-conscience,  scarce  machine  ! 

Yet,  it  is  new,  this  union  ;  till  this  hour 
Unrealized ;  till  this  night  precluded  quite 
By  full  acceptance  of  the  selfless  fact, 
Sheer  science  :  Kelvin,  Huxley  !  —  Christ  or  Kant 
Left  out  of  count  now,  first  the  formal,  fair 
Rehearsal  of  the  fact !  — 
190 


NANSEN 

To  clutch  a  shroud  ; 

Shake  with  the  strong  wind  streaming ;  ramp  and  rock 
With  sufferance  of  the  vessel  shock'd  ;  upheaved 
With  every  blasting  of  the  bleak  below. 
T  is  to  be  fact  for  facts ;  be  buffeted 
As  block  beats  block ;  be  wail'd-on  by  the  wind. 
Above,  the  boreal  auroras  ;  broad 
Beyond,  about,  below,  the  bleak,  blown  packs 
Sunless  as  senseless.   To  be  one  of  these. 
Ay :  and  how  comes  it  to  be  one  of  these  ? 
Review  the  history,  sum  up  the  law 
Of  evolution,  nebula  to  now  : 
The  progress  such  and  such  ;  geogeny, 
Biogeny,  psychogeny  ;  the  chain 
From  nebula  to  now :  and  every  new 
Born  out  of  old.   And  flesh,  this  organ'd  mass 
Nerved,  sinew'd  draws  descent  direct,  distinct 
From  nebula ;  is  substance  as  the  stars, 
Substance  as  ice  and  night :  and  one  with  these. 
Ay,  though  be  ice,  night,  moon,  but  equally 
With  sunshine,  quickening  vapor  metaphor 
For  death  or  life  :  their  real  identity 
Nor  death  nor  life,  but  force,  fate  :  yet  are  these  — 
The  less,  the  more  —  equal  inanity 

191 


POEMS  OF  PERSONALITY 

Of  fact's  necessity :  '  Self ',  one  of  these ; 
Phenomenon  of  nerve-phenomena, 
Some  sheer  spontaneous  sentience  of  a  '  world  ' 
Was  not,  nor  shall  be :  actual  world  none  less, 
Indifferent,  independent,  nerve  or  nought : 
Intelligence  or  non-intelligence 
Indifferent  to  existence  of  the  fact. 
Ay,  this  *  world-overweighting  '  of  the  brain, 
This  *  passionate,  transcendent  ponderance 
Of  soul ',  this  critical  compendiousness 
Of  '  mind '  o'er  matter,  '  Christhood  ',  '  vicarage  ', 
This  *  saviorship  of  union'd  intellect 
Its  agonied  redemption  ',  were  but  beats 
Of  the  ganglion,  nerve-tissued  blow  on  blow, 
Shaking  and  surging  of  the  plasmic  cells 
At  sweat  and  ramp  and  rage  of  bursting  blood ; 
This  '  God-I-Am '  some  subtlest  ice  or  night 
Blow  for  blow,  burst  for  burst  the  same  in  sort 
As  bellowing  ice-pack  and  this  boreal  blast : 
Nerve,  native  as  the  nebula  :  no-soul ! 
Such  are  the  facts  to  test  and  find  them  true ; 
No  link  disjuncted  :  perfect  in  the  proof. 
And,  for  the  logic  of  all  law  is  such 
Must  man  with  world  come  to  the  doom  at  last  — 
192 


NANSEN 

Kelvin's  and  Huxley's  — with  the  spent  machine  : 
With  tendence  moonward  from  the  might  of  stars : 
Space-dissipation  of  world's  energy 
To  ice  and  night,  no  meaning.   From  the  first 
Even  this  surge  from  nebula  to  now 
Nought  but  a  space-dissemination,  loss 
Of  energy  potential  kinetized 
Toward  equilibrium :  equilibrium 
But  nothingness,  no  force,  non-end  inane : 
Moon,  nought  save  shown  in  sloth  of  swooning 

sun. 

And  if,  in  such  dissemination,  '  soul ' 
(Nice  nerve-vibration)  over  and  beyond 
The  grosser  substance  chemical  gain  growth 
And  power  organic  over  and  beyond 
The  less-organic  ;  stands  the  law  the  same  : 
Such  and  such  from  the  nebula  to  now 
Mere  evolution  of  the  nerve  from  vague 
Chaos  through  energy  kinetic,  sun 
And  star  and  sphere  on  sphere,  through  molten 

mass, 

Rock-metal,  vegetation,  sinew'd  flesh 
To  man's  brain:  and  from  now  back,  back  to  night, 
Cold  crystalline  benumbing  up  of  nerve 
193 


POEMS  OF  PERSONALITY 

In  cosmical  pulsation :  now  from  man 
Back  to  chill'd  coalescence  organless, 
Lifeless  conglomeration :  ice  and  night !  — 
Ha !  the  stars  stab ;  the  bellowing  below 
Mocks  to  the  marrow !   Unto  ice  and  night 
Dedicate  nerve's  destruction!   Now,  to-night 
(What  of  the  years  of  the  world  if  years  yield 

nought  ? ) 

Now,  to-night  end  all;  headlong  to  the  doom 
Dash  on  the  blank  pack's  bosom :  far  below 
Beat  brain  out:  end  the  agony!    In  name 
Of  Kelvin,  Huxley,  now,  to-night  I  leap: 
Anticipate,  make  mine  the  doom  of  all !  — 

Mine?   Mine  the  doom  of  all !   I  hesitate; 
Hold  breath ;  breathe  deep  this  agony  of  air : 
Make  it  my  blood  and  feel  it  mine !   I  am ! 
Life  is  what  means  it  to  be  one  of  these  !  — 
Alive,  I-am;  nebula,  nerve  or  night: 
Necessitating  future  still  as  past 
More  and  more,  past  as  future,  each  in  each ! 
World  ceases  not:  nor  I  cease.   World  I  am!  — 
And  it  is  new,  this  union :  yet  by  will 
To  end  all  proved,  made  perfect  endlessly 
194 


NANSEN 

In  intellectual  action:  Christ  with  Kant!  — 
Faith  for  the  facts !    Feel  faith  and  find  fact  truth ! 

This  logic  of  life-origin,  this  law 
Of  link'd  necessity  ?     Can  link  by  link 
Interminably  link'd  explain  one  life  ? 
Mere  mutuality,  one  molecule 
Save  as  the  mutual  mean  identity : 
My  life,  or  molecule,  an  union'd  world  ? 
Ay ;  in  such  sort :  if  just  this  self  of  mine  — 
God-mechanician  to  their  made  machine, 
Else  unmechanic  mere  nonentity  !  - 
Hypothesized  yet  unexplain'd  remain 
(Hardly  residuum,  scarce  for  fact  beyond) 
Still  for  true  source,  being  synthesis,  of  these, 
Conscience  and  explanation,  linkage,  law  — 
(Sunlike  to  shrinkage  of  moon  soulless  else  ! )  — 
Not  cause,  yet  all-causation  ;  through  and  through 
Immanence  and  intelligence  of  all 
Else  lawless,  linkless,  unionless,  inane  : 
Self-ideality  of  each-through-each ; 
Each  for  itself  forselfness  even  as  I, 
Identified  in  me  as  selfhood  all : 
The  molecule  in  man,  man-molecule, 
195 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Native  reality  :  and  only  so 
Real  at  all,  molecule  or  man,  for  me : 
Past,  future,  none  less  instant,  self  for  self, 
Real  union,  sentience  each ;  though  yet  for  me 
Polar,  unmeaning  save  as  union'd  now. 
Ay  ;  that  I  am,  I  am  :  all  else  in  me 
(As  I  in  them,  through  them,  by  mutual  proof  - 
How  else,  conceived  empirics-error,  save 
World's  self-assertion,  countervail'd  to  mine, 
In  so  far  forth  show  Self  neutrality  ?) 
Through  me  make  mutuality  of  self 
Distinct,  determinate,  dividual 
Yet  individual  universally. 
All  that  I  am,  I  am  :  this  world  of  mine  ; 
This  universe  :  alive  by  saviorship, 
(Monad  or  motive)  Christhood-vicarage  ! 
Development  proved  world-dissipation  proves 
By  world-retort  a  false  criterion, 
Half-standard  contradictory  :  proves  worth 
Of  absolute  process,  progress  regressive 
In  pure  polarity  self-reconciled 
Evolving,  mind  from  matter,  most  from  least. 
Law,  from  the  nucleus  to  now,  but  time 
Of  self's  maturing  :  ever  to  mature  : 
196 


NANSEN 

Even  in  the  space-dissemination,  time's 
Ingathering  of  momentum  ;  human  mind 
O'er  mental  nebula  progressive  still 
In  mutual  internality  of  lore 
Even  as  o'er  physical  man  the  molecule 
Nebular  stood,  still  stands  preeminent 
In  property  material  of  force 
Extern,  displacement  substantive  ;  alike 
Materio-mental,  least  and  most :  one  Soul 
Erst  nebular,  now  nebular-humane  ; 
Ubiquitous,  being  all-self  spatialized  ; 
Eternal,  being  all-temporality : 
Mine  erst,  mine  now,  mine  still  eternal-wise ; 
By  perpetuity  through  passingness 
(This  perfectness  of  process)  nebula 
To  now,  yet  now  by  being  but  nebular 
(Past  and  to-come  but  poles  of  permanence)  : 
Eternally  my  universe  humane  !  — 
Is  it,  world-mutuality  may  end  ? 
Yet  mutual  how,  save  well  aware  through  each, 
Alive  each  molecule  — that  may  not  end, 
Being  each  for  self  criterion  of  end, 
World-mutuality  in  self  alone  ?  — 
Ice  and  night,  '  ice  '  and  '  night '  (man's  metaphor 
197 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

For  end-unmeaning,  dead)  but  humanly ; 
Ice  yet  for  ice,  night  yet  for  night,  humane 
In  selfhood  nebular-molecular : 
Moon  yet  for  moon,  as  sun  for  sun,  one  world  — 
(Transcending  metaphor)  each  molecule  !  — 
Union'd,  processional  unendingly  — 
Soul  not  above,  beyond  ;  but  immanent 
Self-reference,  intelligence  through  all ! 

Lo  !  for  behalf  of  such  as  scarce  may  speak, 
Lo  !  for  life's  ice  and  night,  life  laughs  at  loss : 
Takes  truth  from  lightning  of  the  blank  below : 
Spurns  space-dissemination  :  in  despite 
Turns  law  to  law's  impassion 'd  intellect 
Proved  in  performance  of  my  ship,  my  soul 
Their  prophecy,  foresighted  impotence  ! 
Lo  !  proved  in  the  patience  under  pressure,  power 
Of  passive  Pole-persistency  (extreme 
Passion  of  logic  push'd  to  point),  behold 
Motived  preeminence  of  manhood-plan 
O'er  potency  less  mental ;  o'er  the  bleak 
Ice  and  night  I  for  vicar  proving  world 
Processive,  though  pulsation 'd  :  I  by  proof 
Lifting  the  lost  to  life's  intelligence  ; 
198 


NANSEN 

Fact-science  to  philosophy  by  faith. 
What  of  the  equilibrium,  inane 
Frosting  of  nerve  to  nothingness  ?    By  pace 
Equal,  if  opposite,  above,  beyond 
The  physical  degeneration  steps 
The  '  psychic '  subtlety  :  nor  moon  nor  star 
Shows  soul-futurity,  save  star  or  moon 
In  spirit  equal-born  !  —  And  I  north,  north 
Push,  overpower,  soul-overweight  their  world 
Of  space-passivity  ;  their  extreme  verge 
Of  sphere  yet  union'd  Pole  through  Zone,  yet  proved 
Axial,  self-orbited  —  being  but  motived  more 
Pass  on  the  lamp  of  light,  cramp  boundaries, 
Burst  and  break  down  the  barriers  (limit  proved 
Barrier  but  by  bursting)  ;  limitless 
Lead  on  the  more  than  human  mind  to-come 
In  conquest  of  physic's  frigidity  : 
More  and  more  conquer'd,  spurn'd  beyond,  the  more 
Frosted  in  deadness  of  new  ice  and  night.  — 
Ay  ;  and  in  conquest  more  and  more  shall  world 
(Or  human  or  some  supra-human  nerve, 
Some  more  than  nerve)  by  reconciling  more 
More  comprehend,  include  and  lift  to  light 
The  'deadness  '  and  the  '  darkness  ' :  more  and  more 
199 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Shall  time  to-come,  immanent  now,  make  now 

An  explanation  and  intelligence 

By  selfhood.  —  As  my  selfhood,  savior  now 

Springs  forth  in  fire  abroad,  auroral,  vast 

From  stiffening  of  this  Christhood  on  the  cross 

Stark  aloft !    From  the  vicarage  complete 

(Torment  of  stars  or  mockery  of  moon  : 

This  intellectual  agony  made  mine)  ; 

Eternal  principle  of  every  end  — 

Christ  for  the  ice  and  night,  redeeming  these  !  — 

For  whom  alone  meaning  or  end  may  be  : 

World-saviorship  that  shall  not  end  !  — 

I  rave  ? 
Drunk  with  the  drench  of  drouth,  of  death  ?    I 

freeze  ?  — 

Ha  !  the  skies  scoff !   I  still  am  doom'd  in  dream  : 
Man,  with  the  dead-eternal  ice  and  night. 


200 


DREYFUS 

NAY,  I  make  no  revolt ;  accept  the  doom  ; 

Drag  on  in  desolate,  deliberate  death 

The  life-imprisonment.    No  petulance, 

No  desperation  ;  only  an  intent 

To  realize  utterly  this  miserable 

Incarceration,  learn  appreciate 

The  bondage ;  leave  behind  me  here  at  death 

The  written  testimony,  manuscript 

Of  the  judgeless  punishment;  that  world  may  know 

As  I  know,  once  for  all,  so  shudder  at, 

Assimilate  and  once  for  all  forswear 

(As  I  in  pure  appreciation  rise, 

In  and  through  prisoning,  beyond  these  bars 

To  absolute  freedom  of  contemplating) 

This  horrible  denial,  vital  void. 

I  have  come  through  the  whirlwind  and  am  calm, 
Calm  as  these  stones  and  unremitting  chains  : 
Shall  '  keep  calm  for  the  purpose  to  speak  truth '. 
I  make  no  plaint :  even  mine  innocence 
Absolute  of  the  charge  preferr'd  upon  me 
Seems  scarce  to  irritate,  exasperate 
201 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Since  the  first  bitterness  of  fierce  turmoil, 
Nor  lure  to  loss  of  sanity.    I  but 
Feel  the  more  fully,  may  be,  more  abhor 
The  manner  of  my  condemnation.   Were  I 
But  guilty  as  I  now  am  innocent 
Were  uttermost  abhorrence  mine  the  same 
As  justly  and  as  innocently  'gainst 
Their  absolute  non-justice,  disregard 
Of  any  innocence  or  guilt  of  mine. 
Though  for  the  sake  of  this  my  narrative 
Its  prima  facie  evidence  of  truth, 
Good  faith,  trustworthiness,  I  still  am  glad, 
Take  pride  in  innocence  ;  yet  aggravate 
My  scorn,  my  self-transcendence  of  the  doom 
No  whit  because  they  work'd  worse  than  they  knew, 
I  'II  not  suppose  they  thought  me  innocent : 
The  imputation  of  malignancy 
Is  supererogatory.    I  maintain 
But  that  mine  innocence  nor  guilt  at  all 
Bore  weight  in  the  matter,  influenced  the  course 
Of  condemnation  in  the  least  degree. 
There  lies  the  blame,  the  worse  than  blackest  blot 
My  soul  can  well  conceive.   On  them  I  lay 
Bloodguiltiness  of  total  disregard 
202 


DREYFUS 

For  right  nor  wrong ;  pursuance  right  or  wrong 
Of  one  hypothesized  and  prejudiced 
Supposed  essential  policy  :  the  case 
Nowise  in  question  ;  the  one  dogma,  all. 

First,  can  prejudgment  of  one  policy 
To  be  pursued,  regardless  for  whate'er 
Of  new  may  yet  eventuate,  constitute 
By  force  of  supreme  faith  its  final  right 
In  the  conscience  of  its  agent  and  absolve 
Agent  from  any  blame  or  merit  else  ? 
Not  so.    I  hold  that  certainly  one  faith, 
To  be  sure,  one  self-ideal  of  a  life 
Guides  each  his  action,  nor  can  be  escaped 
By  any  subterfuge  :  evasions  even 
Serving  but  subtlier,  more  pervasively 
So  to  develop  and  define  the  law 
(Covering  all  exceptions  utterly) 
Of  being  and  one's  ultimate  self-world. 
Yet  is  such  over-soul,  transcendent  union 
No  dogma  of  some  still-persistent  end, 
No  rule  of  specialist  activity, 
But  such  immanent  unity  as  through 
The  multiple,  mutable  particular  rules 
203 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Finds  itself,  is  their  universal  self, 
Intrinsic  unity  :  nowise  prejudiced 
Hypothesis,  persistent  disregard 
For  new  experience  ;  but  just  the  ground 
Of  all  experience,  of  new  as  old  : 
And  else  were  no  instant  self-certainty. 
So  much  for  self-consistency.    I  claim 
That  policy  a  perfidy  toward  self, 
Denial  of  the  self-organic  growth 
In  freedom  by  necessity  of  point 
To  point  link'd  mutual  in  evolving  life, 
That  policy  the  true  self-perfidy 
Which  posits  truth  on  strange  authorization 
And  formal  self-conviction  once  for  all 
Immutable.   The  self-consistency 
(Monism  of  universal  variance) 
Has  vital  basis  ;  scarce  excuses  vain 
Self-segregation  from  assimilance. 
Whence  remains  question,  to  be  tried  and  proved 
In  this  my  narrative  for  all  the  world  : 
Whether  or  no  (sanely  and  quietly 
As  tranquil  now)  in  so  condemning  me 
Regard  to  any  innocence  or  guilt 
By  way  of  evidence  was  properly 
204 


DREYFUS 

Admitted  ;  whether  or  no  prejudgment  of 

The  cause  precluded  right  or  wrong  throughout  — 

Inquiry  calling  for  unprejudiced 

Sifting  of  intricate  procedure,  which 

Examination  of  each  act  by  act 

So  far  as  I  be  not  in  ignorance 

Unfairly,  misinform 'd  of  real  events 

Whose  true  report  was  due  my  perilment, 

Shall  be  my  narrative  through  patient  years 

Here  'mid  these  walls.   But  need  not  hinder  now. 

Secondly,  of  the  systems  which  in  the  world 
Most  stand  for  sheer  prejudgment,  disregard 
Of  individual  initiative, 
Persistence  in  one  abstract  policy, 
Represent,  are  expression  of  a  pure 
Obliviousness  to  actuality 
Of  self-conviction  ;  which  require  the  most 
Self-perfidy  by  policy  pursued 
Rigidly  exoteric  in  the  rule 
Laid  down  by  strange  authority,  I  claim 
The  militar  bureaucracy,  their  system 
Of  outworn  mediaeval  ordering 
Stands  worst  and  most  outrageous.   Can  the  man 
205 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Commission'd  and  authoritative,  else 
Outrank'd,  owning  allegiance,  be  excused 
From  charge  of  selling  birthright,  soul  and  all  ? 
Conceive  the  underling,  the  slave  who  stands 
For  puppet,  prisoner  of  superior 
Official  and  commission'd  overlord  ; 
Drill'd,  train 'd  by  sheer  reiteration  to 
Come,  go  at  bidding  ;  kill  if  need  be  ;  scarce 
Of  independence  and  intelligence 
To  breathe  by  self-direction  :  in  so  far 
As  man  may  utterly  renounce  his  worth 
Absolved  from  all  responsibility, 
All  moral  fibre ;  made  a  mere  machine, 
Automaton  :  best  soldier,  the  worst  man. 
Nor  that  there  are  in  the  world  men  who,  save  slaved, 
Were  wild,  obstreperous,  dangerous  to  their  kind 
(Deserving  dungeon  as  I  merit  none) 
Makes  medal 'd  orderly  nor  cow'd  poltroon 
Better  than  galley-slave  :  who  first  renounce 
(For  lust  of  crime  or  lust  of  pay,  what  care  ?) 
All  further  rights  of  new  experience, 
All  possibility  to  profit  by 
New  stimulus  toward  new  intelligence  ;  to 
Evolve  as  individual,  universed 

206 


DREYFUS 

Man-of-a-world  and  actual  entity. 
Nay,  that  the  stultification  somewhat  fails 
Of  innermost  completeness  but  implies 
Impossibility  of  mechanism  : 
Reflects  no  credit  on  the  scheme  which  fails. 
Courage  with  ready-reason 'd  action  comes 
Scarce  of  the  soldier-element :  remains 
Residuum  of  the  man  not  quite  crush 'd  out. 
And  for  the  overlord,  commissioner 
In  so  far  as  not  underling  the  same 
To  some  outranking  in  authority, 
'T  would  seem  at  first  sight  as  though  most  of  man 
Remain'd  uncrush'd,  just  by  the  exercise 
Of  uttermost  authority  self-wilFd. 
Yet  in  the  superposed  authority 
Regardless  of  all  self-initiative 
(Save  brainless  flesh-instinctive  ritual) 
In  the  rank  and  file,  springs  real  self-perfidy 
Subtler,  so  more  pernicious,  worse  abhorr'd 
Than  sheer  automatism.   For  such  will 
Were  merely  will,  sheerly  the  emptiness 
Of  indeterminate  and  self-estranged 
Prejudgment.    Every  item  for  such  law  — 
Pure  overposited  by  fiatism, 
207 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Purely  a  puppet,  of  generic  type 
An  instance  merely  and  no  fact  at  all 
To  be  accounted  with  and  reconciled  — 
Lacks  world-reality,  stands  sheerly  for 
The  overlord's  subjectivism  (these  stones' 
Regardlessness  of  innocence)  no  live 
Ideal  actuality,  no  truth. 
Whence  are  all  actions  of  such  governance 
(Wanting  reality  of  governed  selves) 
Actions  to  no  end  of  self-actual  world, 
No  whole  self-realization  ;  but  denial 
Of  self's  reality,  self-governance. 
Whence  the  commander,  despot  rigidly 
By  preconceived,  so  unadjustable 
And  inorganic  fiat,  worst  of  all 
Forswears  the  self-world-organism,  is  most 
Incapable,  in  all  that  touches  him 
As  soldier,  of  an  actual  manliness  ; 
Most  like  machine  when  most  authoritative, 
Most  judgmentless  (most  like  these  worldless  walls) 
When  dooming  most,when  most  court-martial  judge. 
And  that  some  humanhood  remains  to  these 
By  failure  of  the  system  quite  to  quench 
Mutual  regard  for  men's  reality 
208 


DREYFUS 

Of  independent  soul-initiative 

Shall  scarce  excuse  the  system  which  still  fails. 

Whence  am  I  righteously  (no  blame  of  theirs) 
Doom'd  as  by  plenum  of  accomplish'd  fate 
To  destiny,  deplorable  enough, 
Deserved  of  any  man  who  earnestly 
And  faithfully  as  may  be  serves,  supports 
The  military  system  ;  who  at  last 
By  very  innocence  of  all  offense 
Charged  in  indictment  'gainst  the  monstrous  scheme, 
By  very  militar  trustworthiness 
(As  I  an  officer  was  trustworthy 
As  stones  and  chains  are  somewhat  trustworthy) 
Realizes  self  best  by  this  judgmentless 
Oblivion  of  responsibility 
For  right  nor  wrong.   I  had  the  less  deserved 
This  desolateness  had  my  manhood  less 
Been  soldierly.  — I,  realizing  at  last 
Soul's  absolute  self-responsibility, 
Prologuize  narrative  (of  soul's  worst  wrong 
Men  e'er  committed)  with  confession  full : 
In  so  far  as  I  served  and  did  command 
Trustworthily  am  I  deservingly 
209 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Victim  of  mine  old  mediaeval  zeal, 

My  monkish  segregation  self  from  world 

Imposing  an  imposed  authority 

As  martinet,  disciplinary  chief 

To  the  death.   Confess,  mine  innocence  of  all 

Charges  preferr'd  against  me  for  worst  crime 

Imputable :  and  shall  in  all  I  say 

Damning  their  disregard  for  right  nor  wrong 

Damn  by  each  jot  and  tittle  of  my  proof 

Of  innocence  myself  to  living  death, 

This  desolate  existence :  righteously. 

So  in  the  narrative  I  rise  beyond 

The  degradation,  realize  utterly  — 

Since  that  first  bitterness  of  mad  turmoil 

Transfiguring,  regenerating  all  — 

Absolute  freedom  of  contemplating 

The  terms  of  this  my  life-imprisonment : 

Teaching  the  world  (save  in  their  zeal  the  guards  - 

That  one  last  loss  which  scarce  will  leave  me  sane ! 

Obliterate  this  written  testimony!) 

Men's  horrible  denial,  vital  void; 

This  manlessness  which  is  their  martial  law ! 


210 


TESLA 

A  LIFE-TIME  vow'd  to  service  of  mankind ! 

Here  'mid  these  marvel- working  manifold 

Automata,  built  of  my  brain  and  strength, 

To  labor  to  increase  man's  energy! 

Ay,  not  to  human  weal  alone,  but  all 

Earth's  is  the  service  dedicate;  for,  though 

Human  activity  must  needs  exploit 

Subhuman,  subhumanity  none  less 

Gains  as  the  world  at  large  by  every  new 

Economy  of  practice :  energy 

Of  all  earth  more  effective  by  each  least 

Subtler  adjustment  of  the  mechanism. 

All  earth  a  mechanism,  whatsoe'er 

Axes  or  fulcra ;  molecules  or  minds 

Alike  one  reservoir  of  fluid  force 

Unstable,  by  whose  instability 

Is  mankind  measurable.    I,  a  man, 

But  an  automaton  of  vital  force 

Directing  by  mine  energy  supreme 

Of  subtlest-sure  adjustments  world's  work  all 

Through  the  self-dedication.    In  despite 

Of  self-supposed  originality, 

211 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Illusive  independence;  just  because 
Of  mechanism-leadership,  most  subtly 
A  full-felt  world-dependence;  am  I  most 
Machine,  axis  and  fulcrum  in  this  world ! 

Is  this  thing  so  ?    Am  I  this  world-machine  ?  — 

Yea,  for  these  many  years  I  've  swiftly  work'd 

Of  this  one  guide  and  standard  to  my  strength : 

The  more  machine-like,  so  ideally 

The  more  myself;  the  more  this  heart  and  brain 

Conceive  and  execute  automata, 

The  more  myself  realizes  for  the  world 

A  genuine  worldship.   Such  the  mass;  and  such 

The  swiftness,  such  the  motion :  wherefore  such 

The  mundane  energy !   Thus  have  I  wrought, 

Thus-wise  believing.   And,  by  work's  success 

Even  in  its  sort,  proved  my  philosophy 

Of  practical  purport  and  sufficient  thus 

To  truth.   So  have  I  held;  and  still  hold  so. 

Yet  though  in  this  present  pause  from  labor's  stress, 

In  this  unprecedented  need  to  weigh 

Well  the  world-worth  of  this  my  way  of  life, 

Springs  an  enthusiasm,  yea,  a  zeal 

For  just  such  course  as  hitherto  pursued ; 

212 


TESLA 

Yet  in  excess  of  zeal  justly  demands, 
Ay,  strangely  preconceives,  prejudges,  ay, 
An  ultimate  criticism,  evaluation 
Of  my  belief's  foundations.    Face  to  face 
Start  forth  enthusiasm,  soul-profound, 
Soul-overwhelming  ;  ay,  and  to  its  face 
A  sudden  void  of  all  which  had  seem'd  proof, 
A  sudden  need  to  prove  anew  a  scheme 
Wherein  enthusiasm,  valuing, 
Self-judgment,  criticism,  have  their  place 
For  all-important.  —  Can  the  mere  machine 
Be  less  mechanic  for  a  blank  despair  ? 
Have  or  despair  or  faith  a  meaning  for 
Automata  ?    And  yet  faith  and  despair 
Are  fundamental.    I  am  fill'd  with  faith, 
Faith  which  but  by  supreme  self-confidence 
Demands  establishment.    In  that  despair 
Which  was  mine  for  the  fiery  element 
(Resuming  locally  an  outlived  past 
Insensate  of  nebular  immanence  ?) 
Which  in  an  hour  did  lay  waste  all  my  work 
Of  decades  ;  in  that  sudden-sprung  dismay 
(At  loss  of  cosmic  process  and  contact 
Too  retrograde  with  force  unfrigerate  ?) 
213 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Was  nought  of  energy,  no  moving  force, 
No  force-moved  mass  :  the  dedication,  ceased  ; 
Stopp'd,  the  world-service.  This  automaton, 
CalPd  work,  quite  disestablish 'd  ;  man  or  mind, 
Axis  or  fulcrum  shatter'd  ;  in  despite 
Of  universal  energy  (that  keen 
Condition  of  the  first  mass-birth)  despair 
Immeasurable  and  immitigable 
Of  this  one  personal  estimate  did  end 
The  mechanism.    In  that  hour  I  sat 
Of  a  smoking,  ashen,  soul-denuded  world  ; 
Which  by  the  very  world-essential  soul 
Of  me  (my  blank  despair)  proved  so  no  world. 
Now  is  the  world  of  this  self-dedicate 
Enthusiasm  reestablished  ;  yea, 
Scarce  by  dependence  upon  heat  or  cold  ; 
Not  by  an  automatic  world-device 
Of  mechanism  ;  but  by  world-design, 
New  zeal  inrushing  over  all  the  void  : 
World  rehabilitate  by  virtue  of 
This  personal  estimate  new-vitalized. 
Can  such  a  world  whose  being  so  depends 
On  faith,  non-being  on  a  mere  despair, 
Be  mechanism  ?    Can  the  self  be  given 
214 


TESLA 

Wholly  to  mankind's  service,  nor  thereby 

But  subtlier,  richlier  serve  this  personal  sense 

Of  value,  paramount  and  lord  of  all  ? 

Ha  !  What  my  mere  machines  (analogous 

With  men's  souls,  but  not  thereby  men  !)  must  needs 

Lack,  is  this  manufacturing  soul-self  ; 

Which  not  alone  mechanically  makes, 

But  knows  :  '  I  make  ;  and,  knowing  so,  transcend 

'All  mechanism  '.    Ha  !  and  this  my  soul 
(Analogous  with  such  automata, 
But  not  thereby  mechanic)  actualizes 
Self,  both,  and  world-mechanics  by  best  being 
Not  a  world-dedication,  but  a  stuff 
Which  knows  :  *  I  dedicate  and  by  this  sense 

'Alone  am  world-devoted  '.    So  shall  zeal 
Establish  zeal ;  insistently  maintain 
Mechanics  which  alone  were  mechanism 
By  fundamental  faith.    Else  were  despair 
Indifferent ;  world  indifferent,  work  or  nought. 
Else  were  the  fiery  destruction,  no 
Undoing  ;  nor  the  work  evaluable. 
Else  were  world-service  utterly  inane. 

So,  to  the  reconstruction.    Whilst  I  work 
215 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Still  at  the  old  mechanics,  to  conceive 
World  for  a  self-world,  so  conceive  the  scheme 
Of  service  as  to  show  the  work  in  sooth 
Auto-energic  :  ay,  no  longer  but 
Postponement  of  world's  sheer  devitalizing. 
For  I  have  dream'd  and  taught  that  all  my  work 
Aim'd  at  postponement  of  the  inevitable 
Infrigeration  ;  sought  economy 
Merely  of  dissipation  with  a  view 
To  eking-out  what  energy  remains 
From  the  more  wasteful  methods.   I  have  sought 
Decrease  destruction  in  opposing  war 
With  war's  mechanics  push'd  to  limit  of 
Conceivable  effectiveness ;  thereby 
With  horror  of  catastrophe  to  cow 
The  blustering  militance.    This  have  I  done 
Toward  mass-economy,  postponing  time 
Of  final  destitution.    I  have  sought 
By  chemic  subtlety  to  fertilize 
Barrenness  to  a  cropping,  that  mankind 
At  far  less  waste  than  of  his  flocks  and  herds 
Might  live  by  bread  unto  remoter  years : 
Postponing  sure  starvation.    I  have  sought 
Far  beyond  all  else  so  to  utilize 
216 


TESLA 

Sun's  energy  remaining  best  by  forcing 
Electric  instability,  to  use 
Earth  for  one  vast  elastic  reservoir 
Of  fluid  potency  ;  by  setting  up 
Local  disturbances  at  least  expense, 
To  energize  with  practical  potency 
For  warmth,  food,  shelter,  vitality  or  strength 
As  needed  every  molecule  of  earth 
Without  molecular  destruction  :  yet 
Admitting  how  inevitably  must 
Practical  worth  of  molecules  (if  not 
By  deepest  definition  matter's  self  ? ) 
In  the  wellnigh  interminable  course 
Of  dissipation  thus  electrically 
Set  up,  be  slowly,  fatally  none  less 
Exhausted.    For,  howe'er  device  may  aim 
Toward  fostering  inequilibrium 
Of  potencies,  must  every  transformation 
To  energy  mechanical  set  up 
A  kinematic  equilibrium ; 
In  so  far  irretrievably  exhaust 
The  potency.    Thus  in  a  sort  my  work 
Has  seem'd  a  self-defeat;  a  weak  attempt 
(However  by  comparison  immense) 
217 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Toward  mere  postponement  of  an  evil  day 

Inevitable  ;  and  an  end  of  life, 

Nowise  disbarr'd.   And  in  mechanic  scheme 

Must  whatsoe'er  economy  but  be 

Relative  to  preceding  waste  ;  none  less 

Modicum  of  exhaustion,  dissipation 

Proceeding  still,  if  temporarily 

New  wealth  yet  unexploited  open  up 

Delusive  vista  ;  or  if,  for  direct 

Acknowledgment  of  waning,  earlier  wants 

Be  strictly  curtail'd.   Such  has  been  my  work 

Acknowledging  a  self-defeat,  devoting 

Self  to  a  general  and  still  foredoom'd 

Lost  cause,  forlorn  hope  without  source  of  hope, 

Such  were  a  mere  mechanics  self-destroy 'd. 

Now  but  the  mechanism  proves  to  need 
A  self-establisher ;  and  equally 
Possesses  such.   World- work  is  self-sustain'd. 
Devotion  is  of  zeal  and  faith  ;  the  self 
Ever  more  richly  realized  in  the  work 
World-dedicate  ;  and  nowise  in  such  work 
Susceptible  to  any  self-defeat. 
What  of  this  world,  which,  being  world  of  self, 
218 


TESLA 

Mechanics  auto-vital,  self-sustain 'd, 
Cannot,  whatso  the  dedication,  still 
In  dedication  suffer  self-defeat  ? 
What  of  a  world  of  faith,  self-consciously 
A  work  and  an  evaluing  of  work  ? 
Were  my  works  wrong  ?    Were  there  no  value  in 
Civilization,  ever  earning  more 
By  less  comparative  of  waste  ?    Or  were 
Such  effort  valuable,  reason -right, 
Definable  in  any  terms  at  all, 
Just  because  over  and  above  the  work 
Is  valuation  :  consciousness  and  faith  ? 
Man  cannot  live  by  bread  alone ;  man's  wars 
Shall  cease  but  for  disgust  —  at  worst,  dismay  — 
Which  enginery  (putting-aside  from  self 
Destructiveness)  may  mean  :  not  enginery 
(Pride  in  a  pompous,  loud  ingeniousness) 
Be  war's  cessation  ;  and  't  were  zeal  for  work 
In  work's  enlarged  horizon  which  my  skill 
Shall  kindle  :  not  the  work-fact,  but  the  joy 
In  estimated  process  skill-sustain'd. 
Such  were  solution.   I  deny  no  whit 
The  perfect-proved  mechanical  dismay 
Which  fronts  us  ;  from  the  first  every  least  act  — 
219 


POEMS  OF   PERSONALITY 

Defined  mechanicwise  for  physical 
Equilibration  of  some  potency  — 
Has  been  and  still  shall  be  self-dissipant, 
Doom'd  to  destruction,  still  degenerating 
Despite  all  ingenuity  ;  and  so 
Unthinkable  for  any  world  of  faith, 
Enthusiasm  or  intelligence 
Of  workmanship.    So  from  the  first  has  been 
Evaluation  ;  which  through  every  stroke 
Of  mass-in-motion  more  and  more  intends 
Purposive  adaptation  ;  more  and  more 
Posits  economy,  by  utterly 
Forswearing  standard  of  economism 
For  fundamental.    Every  motion-mass, 
Factors  of  energy,  were  such  but  by 
The  estimation  :  'I  am  mass  and  move  '. 
Every  dissemination,  every  fall 
Of  energy  toward  equilibrium 
(In  the  cooling  process  of  the  fiery  scheme) 
Stands  register'd  eternally,  by  more 
And  more  recomplication  through  and  through 
The  evaluation  ;  which,  by  every  move 
And  loss  mechanic,  waxes  in  design 'd 
Enthusiasm,  in  the  psychic  strength 
220 


TESLA 

Of  comprehension,  organized,  concrete 

Self-adaptation,  self-devotion  through 

Rich  Her  a  world  of  process,  of  a  growth 

Equal  to  regress ;  yet  by  nature  of 

Growth  by  contrast  with  physical  decay, 

Infinitely,  ay,  qualitative-wise 

Supremely  of  importance.   Through  and  through 

Is  world  a  scheme  of  matter-motived  loss  : 

ParalleFd,  ay,  in  sure  polarity 

Of  meaning,  by  its  equal  counterpart, 

The  psychic  increase  :  as  psychology 

Means  growth  ;  so  physics,  dissipance;  and  both, 

One  static  process.    As  all  energy, 

Or  wastefully,  or  by  my  subtlest  scheme 

Economized,  must  dissipate  (the  mass 

CalPd  man,  move  as  a  mass  with  less  each  hour 

Of  physic-energy  in  flesh  and  brain) 

So  must  the  zeal  (if  mass  be  possible 

Even  for  its  own  defeat)  of  comprehension, 

Enthusiastic  teleology 

Of  ordering  estimate  evalue  more 

And  more  unendingly.   My  whole  work  looks 

Ever  toward  richlier  comprehending  world 

In  self  ;  toward  organism  (fleshly  still 

221 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

If  fleshly  less  preponderant)  which  shall  be 

As  far  beyond  our  present  human  frame 

As  man  excels  the  nuclear  molecule 

Of  star-stuff.    As  my  world-intelligence 

Sprung  from  the  nebula  ;  so  springs,  in  just 

The  same  continuous  frigeration,  some 

More-than-man  and  some  more-than-heat  to  hold 

System  eternally  :  some  less-than-heat 

With  heat's  evanishment  indifferently 

To  life's  perpetuance.   I  in  my  purge 

By  fiery  holocaust,  I  in  my  sense 

Of  world-habilitation  totally 

Conclude  an  universe  ;  as  molecule 

Of  nebula  concluded,  still  concludes 

Only  less  man-significantly  such 

Eternal  worldship.    Every  organism 

Chemic  or  supra-physiologic  each 

Is  perpetuity.   Mine  energy 

Of  world  is  inexhausting,  being  a  faith.  — 

What  possibility  of  after-life  ? 

What  meaning  to  expected  end  of  all  ? 

What  worth  to  cyclic  rhythm,  counterpoise 

And  energy  exhausted  ?    These  were  mere 

Partial  interpretation  of  work  done 

222 


TESLA 

And  so  defined  as  ended,  still  foredoom'd  ! 
The  worker  were  not  done,  still  less  foredoom'd 
Who  is  criterion  of  continuance  ! 
What  else  were  spirit  than  this  zeal  to  work 
A  self-salvation  by  my  made  machines 
Serving  in  sort  my  human  world  ?    And  yet 
More  than  this  manifold  and  marvel-seeming 
Mechanic  ingenuity  were  this  : 

'  I  make  :  and  know ;  and  cannot  foil  my  faith 

'  Which  were  criterion  even  of  despair ; 

'  Eternity  and  continuity 

'  Even  of  the  fiery  purge,  ashen  defeat '. 
So  have  I  sought  and  found  automaton ; 
Auto-establisher  through  every  stroke 
Of  world-dependent,  man-devoted  zeal. 
Only  by  mass-transcendence  might  I  mean 
Mass,  motion,  energy  :  and  I  am  these : 
Original,  creative,  absolute 
As  any  other  among  all  mankind  !  — 

Nay,  't  were  insane  !    Were  not  the  fiery  fact 
Lord  of  despair,  master  of  this  machine, 
Irrevocably  proved,  by  mockery 
Of  mine  illusive  insight,  from  the  first 
223 


POEMS   OF   PERSONALITY 

Creator  and  created  ?   Such  defeat, 
As  by  too  great  success  at  calling  back 
The  obsolete  incandescence,  proves  the  world 
Unmeaning  mass ;  my  faith  or  my  despair 
Product  —  and  only  thereby  factor  too  — 
In  the  world-energy.   I  feel  and  will 
(With  far  less  vital  zeal)  but  as  a  flame 
Devours  :  and  ashens  with  its  food's  surcease, 


224 


(OTbe  Rtoewtoe 

Electrotyped  and  printed  by  H.  O.  Houghton.  &  Cf. 
Cambridge,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


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191932 


LD  21-50w-8,-32 


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